Reign of the Rancid
by Zaio
Summary: A group of teens and others wander around New York state, which has become infested with zombies. They search for answers, family, saftey and themselves. Please leave me some reviews, let me know how you like it. Chapter 10 is up.
1. Chapter 1: Code Red

**12/10/07- I'm going through my story and editing some stuff. Also moving some of the Author's Notes around and what not.**

**Disclaimer Thingy- This story was inspired by Dawn of The Dead but has nothing to do with it or any other copywritten material. The plot and character's are mine, but just incase I'm also stating that I do not own Dawn of The Dead or any of it's characters.**

**Reign of the Rancid**

Chapter 1: Code Red

"This is principle Allen, we have a code red. All faculty bring in any students from the halls and follow the emergency instructions you have been issued."

The announcement ended abruptly and immediately the class room was in chaos. Rick Kenovich, a 17 year old junior, turned to his friend Cody Freeman scratching his short military cut brown hair.

"What is this shit? Another drill?" he tried to sound non-chalant, leaning back in his chair for effect. He was slightly nervous, but he honestly felt it was nothing big.

" I don't think so, he sounded pretty sketchy." Cody replied, his voice audibly shaky. Mr. Hertz, the history teacher was trying to get the class in order, he was failing miserably. Rick leaned back farther in his chair and took out his cell phone, calling his best friend, Dan Fernandez. He was about to hit send when he jolted at the bellowing voice from the front of the room.

"HEY!" Mr. Hertz yelled angrily. The sheer volume of Mr. Hertz's voice caused the class to become instantly silent. It also caused Rick to lose balance and fall off his chair and hit his his on the floor.

"Ow! Son of a bitch!" he cursed none to softly. There were a few sniggers, Mr. Hertz seemed to ignore it. He walked to the door shut it and turned off the lights.

"Ok everyone stay calm, shut the windows, sit on the ground and for god sakes shut the hell _up!_" The students complied quietly, there was no more excited chatter. The enormity of the situation had sunk in. A code red meant there was an intruder in the school, Rick's mind instantly snapped to a tall shadowy figure in a trench coat wielding a shotgun. He whipped out his phone, he thought of calling the police but it would be pointless, Mr. Hertz and a number of other students had already done so. He sent a message to Dan.

Wats up?

He waited and within a few seconds he got a reply.

N/M sitin in the dark.

Ten minutes had gone by slowly and silently and uneventful. Rick turned to another of his good friends, a blonde haired blue eyed girl named Jennifer Goodman.

"What do you think is going on?" It was a stupid question he thought but he couldn't take the silence, it was starting to annoy him. Jennifer turned to him, she looked fearful.

"I hope there's not a shooter..." Rick had ruled this out by now.

"Relax, if there was a shooter we'd of heard the shots. The police would have been here..." It had been ten minutes, where were the police?

"Mr. Hertz?" he looked at his teacher skeptically as he asked him what must of sounded like _the _most pointless question at a time like this. Mr. Hertz turned slightly exasperated.

"Yes Kenovich?"

"You did call the police right?"

"Yes! What kind of teacher would I be..."

"Well where are they?"

"That's a good question.." Mr. Hertz was obviously upset that the police hadn't shown up by now. More time passed it had been almost half and hour since Principal Allen's announcement. Cody turned to Rick.

"We're on the first floor, why don't we just get out through these windows?" He looked at Rick and Jennifer, as if they're answer would determine whether they would continue to sit or the entire class would suddenly start exiting the room. Rick didn't feel like speaking to anyone at the moment, he had just got another text message from Dan.

turn on the news

He was reluctant to ask but the silence was really getting to him.

"Can we turn the news on?" Mr. Hertz seemed to consider the request.

"No, now be quiet."

"But.."

"Damnit I said no!"

Rick was about to retort when a small wiry boy named Jamie stood up and pointed out the window.

"Look! Look at all those people!" Outside making their way across the parking lot to the front of the building were scores of bloodied, gray skinned people with dead eyes.

"Oh my god! You think there was a terrorist attack?" asked a girl amidst the crowd of students. Someone answered her, the voice was monotone as if the speaker was in a daze.

"No, why would they want to attack this town?" Rick thoroughly agreed, the small town of Evansworth NY wasn't an appealing target for any terrorists as far as he could think of. Cody looked at Rick, he was scared but he could not think of what to say. Jennifer put her hand on his shoulder and on Ricks.

"Stay close.." her voice was quiet and weak. Rick had a bad feeling and he agreed wholly with Jennifer, if the shit hit the fan he would want the two of them with him. He wanted Dan too. He looked back at the gray skinned people. Some were limping slowly, staggering almost as if they were drunk. Others though were more nimble, they were moving about as fast as Rick could jog, they also had the same drunken movements about them. Every once in awhile they would fall to the ground stupidly, not even bracing themselves, then they would struggle to get up writhing and moaning. There were a select few though that made Rick think that these things were not normal humans. A very select few were full out sprinting, leaping over the slower ones who had fallen, growling loudly.

"Away from the windows!" Mr. Hertz's voice was on the verge of panic, but the students were transfixed at the sights before them. The class football star a boy named Alex pointed towards the front doors.

"Look at that guy, he's missing an arm...He's tackling Marve!" he yelled. "He's..." Alex barreled through his peers and vomited at Mr. Hertz's feet.

"Shit he's eating him!" Cody screamed. Rick stared in disbelief at the scene before. Although he was some distance away a man with only one arm had tackled Marve, one of the schools security guards to the ground and was biting into man's neck. The fallen guard seemed to be a rally point as numerous of the beasts converged on the location. Rick hit up Dan's cell, he needed to here from someone outside of Room 135.

"Dan are you seeing this?" his voice cracked.

"Yeah man, did you see the news? It's all over!"

"What?" Rick could here a lot of screaming on the other end. He could hear through the walls; Dan's English class was in the classroom two floors directly above his.

"Dan?" More screams and shouts, then he could make his friends voice out."

"What! Their in the school! Who said."

"Dan! Did you..."

"Rick."

"Dude, what's.."

"Rick their in the school!" Rick's heart skipped a beat. He wasn't sure how scared he was supposed to be, were these things rioting people? Some sort of mob? He desperately wanted answers.

"What are they Dan!" Everyone in the class was now watching Rick, longing for some answers, for instructions. Cody lightly punched Rick in the shoulder.

"What's going on?" Rick looked at the door, his heart was racing.

"Their in the school."

"Oh my..." Jennifer whimpered. Rick could hear bloodcurdling screams now, he heard Dan yelling."

"Rick their here! They're in..." Rick dropped the phone.


	2. Chapter 2: On The Run

**Thanks for all the feedback so far. I'm using wordpad because my computer has Microsoft Works which is not supported on this site. So sorry for some of the spelling mistakes. I felt I may have rushed this chapter a bit but I wanted to get one more out before I went on vacation. Please leave some feedback, this story is going to be longer than I thought and I would like to know if it's worth continuing.**

**12/10/07- Went Through and I'm editing some stuff.**

**Reign Of The Rancid**

Chapter 2: On The Run

"Mr. Hertz!" Jennifer shrieked terrified pointing to the door. A mottled gray skinned man with sunken eyes could be seen through the window, he was moaning and banging on the door pathetically. He looked as if he was in his thirties but his eyes and tainted skin made him look beyond his years. Somebody piped up from the students.

"Should...Should we help him?" There was an uproar.

"The hell with that!"

"What if that was you!"

"They're _eating_ people!"

"Let us go home!"

"They're coming!" screamed a small mousy haired girl named Cecile. Cody wheeled around and saw four to five of the cannibals staggering toward the history room and an alarming pace. It was evident that they were in trouble, being on the first floor they were going be attacked from all directions.

"We're gunna be trapped!" the boy named Jamie screamed frantically.

"Get away from the windows! Now!" Mr. Hertiz bellowed. More of the monsters had converged on the first floor classrooms. Rick was shocked there were now about two hundred or so outside climbing through windows, attacking anything that moved, snarling like rabid beasts. The girl named Cecile had opened the rescue window, attempting to escape before it was to late. Mr. Hertz bounded across the room.

"Cecile, get back!" He literally threw her away from the window, and attempted to shut it. Jennifer knew what was going to happen, her warning came far to late.

"Mr. Hertz, watch..." The first one was a heavy set old man, he had moved with surprising speed and agility for his age and weight. He was joined by a black haired girl and a middle aged African American man with a bloodied torso. They grabbed Mr. Hertz's arms and attempted to drag him out snarling with anticipation at the meal they were about to have. The horrified students grabbed their teachers legs in a deadly game of tug-of-war. The was a loud dull thud from the hallway. Cody turned to see the window completely plastered with blood and brain matter. It was followed by frantic knocking, not the kind to gray skinned people made.

"Let us in! Please open the door!" cried a voice. The window suddenly broke, through the wire and shards of glass Cody could see a small red haired boy.

"Hey open up were dying out here!" he wailed. A another scream. Cody couldn't leave them. He pushed through the crowd who were more focused on the struggle for their teacher's life than the maddness in the halls. He unlocked the door and about half a dozen students poured in, in the lead was the red haired boy. He held a bloody baseball bat and by the look of his attire he'd had been in gym class. Cody slammed the door shut just as another of the savages ran into the it. It clawed hungrily at the broken window, thankfully it was unable to get passed the wire mesh.

Jennifer looked outside in horror, people were falling from the rooms above onto the ground in front of her.. There were many screams of pain as people who fell from the most upper floors broke bones, only to have the gruesome beings waiting below for them.

"Watch out!" Rick grabbed Jennifer and jumped to avoid Mr. Hertz as he tumbled back into the room with the old rabid man on his chest. Mr. Hertz was holding the man by the neck, who was attempting to bite the teacher. A thick black and red substance dripped from the man's mouth as he continued in his attempt for a bite of flesh. More of the damned were now crawling through the open rescue windows, for now at least they were the slower ones, they seemed to lack even basic coordination, while the faster ones like the old man and the ones Rick had seen earlier were more athletic than they would have been if they weren't...what where they?

"We gotta get out of here!" Jennifer screamed clutching Rick's shoulder. Rick felt as if his heart was going to shoot from his chest, he was shaking.

"R, Right where's Cody?" he looked for his friend, the room felt as if had shrunk, they were so tightly packed now and he still couldn't find his friend, stocky with his slightly long shaggy brown hair. They had to get out soon.

"Move over there!" he yelled pointing to the window that was farthest from the rescue window, the source of the chaos. He and Jennifer made they're way through the melee, the room was in complete panic all order was lost.

"Help me!" screamed Jamie, one of _them _a small child had latched onto his neck and was ripping off chunks of flesh. Jamie gurgled. Jennifer turned and saw Cecile, the girl Hertz had thrown from the window curled up in the corner crying.

"Rick we can't just leave them!" she cried. Rick didn't want to leave them, but he didn't want his friends or himself to die.

"Come on we'll go get help!" he lied. Rick started kicking the window, the gap was to small and angled so if even if a person could fit through, "they" would get you before you could stand up. He continued to kick it with all his might, he'd broken the glass but the metal arms that held the window were only bent, making it harder than before to free themselves. Jennifer screamed. Rick turned and saw one of the creatures, a boy their age attempting to sink his teeth into her chest. Jennifer kicked it in the crouch repeatedly, it had no effect. It was very rotten looking, many parts of the creatures skin was black and smelled worse than anything she had ever smelled. Rick summoned his courage quickly and punched the thing straight in it's nose.

"Get off!" He pulled back, a thick black gooey substance was spattered his knuckles. He had little time to be repulsed, Alex the football player came though the slaughter.

"I can't get it open!" Rick yelled to him.

"Lemmie try." It took only one hefty kick and the window cascaded out, right into the face of a monster. Alex immediately started climbing out. Rick Turned to look one last time for Cody. BANG! The door was flung open, panicky students ran in with the cannibals right behind them. Some one must of left the door unlocked. The numbers of the rabid seemed to increase exponentially since Rick saw the first few only minutes ago.

"We gotta go!" Rick yelled. Alex had just made it through when three of them tackled him to the ground.

"AAHH! HELP! JESUS!" It was the most terrifying scene in Rick's life, that could of been him. The real terror was that should of been him. He felt a sense of relief. It was as clear as it was ever going to get outside the window. Rick took out his car keys.

"Take these and get the car!" he slapped them in Jennifer's hand. She looked scared and confused. Rick continued.

"You go first while it's safe." It wasn't anywhere near "safe" but the three mutants were occupied with Alex and the others were busy feasting on the wounded students who had fallen from above, it was safe enough to make a break for it. Jennifer was about to argue but Rick cut her off.

"I'll be right behind you, just go!" he looked in Jennifer's eyes the were terror stricken.

"Behind you!" she yelped. Rick wheeled around, the same rotten bastard was back, this time his nose was skewed the left and it was gurgling more of the black goo.

"GO!" He punched the thing again in the nose, then pushed it back with his foot sending it careening over a desk.

"What's wrong with you!" he yelled at it like an upset child. He turned to climb out the window when he felt a hand grab his foot. He kicked hard with his free leg.

"OW!" the source of the hand yelled. Rick turned and saw Cody clutching his face.

"Oh shit!" Rick yelled realizing it was his friend. "Come on!" Rick was now outside, Jennifer was close waiting for them she seemed frightened to move without anyone by her side. He turned to help Cody when he felt a something hit him in the head and he collapsed on the ground, he felt as if someone had dropped a large bag of sand on him.

"Rick!" screamed Cody.

"Dan!" Jennifer squeaked.

"Wha, What?" Rick mumbled, still dazed.

"Holy shit man, get up!" yelled a familiar voice. Rick was regaining his senses quickly now.

"Get up!" A brown skinned boy, about Rick's height stood over him, he had black hair and cut in the similar style to Rick's.

"Dan!" Rick was up instantly, new energy flowed through him.

"Thanks for breaking my fall buddy", Dan grabbed Rick by the arm and pulled. "But we gotta go!" Rick turned to look at Alex, his intestines were spilled out on the grass, now red with blood the cannibalistic beings feasted upon the pile of gore.

The four friends raced to the student parking lot. The farther they got away from the school building, there was a lesser concentration of the rabids. They were still nowhere near safety. The parking lot was now more dangerous than ever, there were people fighting each other all other, on top of the cars and in them. What made it truly perilous was the people than had managed to start their cars were driving recklessly, flattening anything in their way in a desperate bid to escape the carnage.

"Watch out!" screamed a girl to their left. The other girl she was with was hit by an old red Mustang, and tossed like a rag doll hitting the pavement sliding to a bloody stop.

"Where did you park!" Cody asked Rick pleadingly. Rick saw his car, there was people climbing on top trying to fend off the creatures, most of which had trouble getting on top.

"Watch it!" Dan pushed Rick aside. He was wielding a metal pole that Rick had failed to notice up until now. A girl, came running after the group Rick recognized her as a girl named Gwen in his chemistry class. Her skin wasn't gray like the others but her eye's were dead, milky white and pupiless like the others she also had a number of bloody wounds on her body.

"What are you doing!" Rick yelled. Whump! With a sickening crunch she toppled to the ground, her faced smashed in. Rick and the others looked horror-stricken at Dan.

"Move!" he yelled.

"Dan what's going on!" Rick demanded.

"I said move!" he pushed Rick roughly. It wasn't the time or place to argue.

"We need a car!" Jennifer screamed, there was an increasing number of the fast moving freaks, the ones like Gwen, the ones she and her friends feared the most.

"Just follow me." Dan yelled, he was in the lead looking back every other second to keep track of his friends." If you see any coming yell it out! As long as we get away from the school we should be much safer!" They were about half way through the parking lot when they ran into a pile up. There were almost a dozen cars all wrecked together, people and the rabids were amongst the twisted steel fighting for their lives.

"Come on stay on top!" Dan instructed to his friends. Cody turned, he heard the revving of an engine. He saw black car cruise through the carnage to the right of the wreckage. Driving was a kid named Anthony, he was driving with one hand, the other he was using to keep the other boy, Rodney from being dragged out of the window by one of the beasts who had become stuck to the roof of the car.

"Cody!" screamed Jennifer. He was starting to lag behind. There was a scream. Jennifer as trying to pry her foot from a hand.

"Help..." It was not one of the gray skinned people, it was a boy who was pinned by the steering wheel of his car.

"Help..." Rick turned and kicked the boys hand off.

"Leave him Jen, we can't do anything for him!" Rick felt horrible and can't believe he just said such a thing. They made it out of the steel killing field with no further incident. They ran along the road parallel to the school, the crazed people still infested the area.

"We aren't clear yet." Dan said momentarily catching his breath. He suddenly turned wildly to beeping of a car.

There was a black SUV barreling directly towards them.

So it looks like they've escaped the school, only to get run over. Anyway we'll get more answers in the upcoming chapters as well as meet some new characters.

I wanted to get this out soon because I'm going a vacation from Aug 11 to Aug 19. I might have time to write more but I won't have access to a computer. I felt this was a bit long but I'll let the readers decide. Please gimmie some feedback it's much appreciated.


	3. Chapter 3: To Grandmother's House We Go

**Reign of the Rancid**

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**Ok, got back from my vacation, updates may slow down a bit, getting ready to go back to school and stuff like that. Also now that I've thought about it this really isn't a Dawn of the Dead fic, it's story is completely different and is really more of just a my own zombie fic, but it was influenced by the movie so whatever. Anyway thanks for the feedback I would appreciate any more.**

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Chapter 3: To Grandmother's House We Go

Tom Burges pulled out of the driveway and sped down the usually quiet street of Edson. He had to get to the school get his daughter Sara and get the hell out of New York before it was to late. According to the news broadcast, there was still a little time. He cursed the government who was in charge of the half assed evacuations, he'd seen on the television that only five percent of the states total population had been evacuated, what a crock of shit.

He missed the days when he was the cheerful funny guy with the perfect family. When his wife left him she took everything, but all he cared about was his daughter. She had gone on a "business" trip and Tom had Sara for the rest of the week, and now if anything happened to her it would be his fault. He heard movement it the back of the SUV. He wheeled around frantically expecting the worse.

It was his toolbox, shifting around do to the cars movement. He looked back to the road.

"Jesus!" THUD! There were many infected on the road now, he'd just hit an elderly man though he could not honestly tell if this man was infected. He felt dread deep in the pit of his stomach, the closer he got to the school the more infected he saw. He saw a young boy tackle a middle-aged woman, most likely his mother and rip her throat out with his teeth. Tom felt as if he was going to vomit, this whole situation was unreal to him. He was now hearing something on the radio, he turned it up. A group of so called "experts" debating whether or not the se things were fit to be categorized as zombies. He changed the station, the last thing he wanted to hear is that Evansworth and all of the state was infected with "zombies." The numbers of pedestrians was now increasing at a speedy rate, he was very close to the school now. The thing that had pissed him off more than anything was those bastards at Titanium International. They were to blame for this shit, and now the backed off, ran away like cowards. The only way they would help now is if the government took up a contract with them. As far as he was concerned PMC's were just a bunch of bloodthirsty mercenaries, the only way Titanium was different was that they could also be contracted to perform scientific research as well as the dirtier business of war.

"Uhhh." he heard a moan. Tom made what sounded like a whimpering noise, as he felt cold clammy hands wrap themselves around his neck.

"Noo!" he screamed and started to wrestle with the undead creature. It had now moved up in between the two seats in the front of his SUV. Tom thrust his hand out clenching the undead maniac by the throat, and smashing its head into the dashboard repeatedly. The beast's left hand found _it's _way to Tom's throat and before Tom could react he entangled with the walking corpse thrashing in the front seat fighting for his life. He refused to stop the vehicle, or even slow down, more of them could get in but more importantly he had to get to Sara he wouldn't allow himself to spare a fraction of a second.

Tom was dangerously close to losing his right ear, the cannibal who he now recognized as Mrs. Henderson his neighbor was chomping away centimeters from Tom's head. Tom took his hand off the steering wheel and was now fully enthralled in combating the undead Mrs. Henderson. He started delivering hefty blows with his elbow; he was to close to construct an effective punch. Ba-bump! The SUV had hit the curb, at the same time he had unfastened his seat belt, to the two actions caused Mrs. Henderson to catapult into the back of the automobile. Tom struggled to get the vehicle back on the road, while simultaneously keeping tabs on Mrs. Henderson. Then there it was, Evansworth West High. The scene before him was of utter carnage, his stomach turned many times. Children were being slaughtered by one another; some infected others just battering anything in their way in a desperate bid for survival. He was momentarily distracted and did not notice the four teenagers on the road ahead of him. Tom smashed the brakes and turned the car vigoursly to the left, straight into an oak tree. Everything went black.

Jennifer froze; there was not much she could have done. It all happened so fast. There was the screeching of the tires and the automobile made a hard left into an oak tree. She saw Rick and Dan rush to the doors. Rick opened the passenger door.

"Hey are you, AH!" A middle aged mutilated woman shot from within the SUV and came straight for Rick it landed on his chest. Rick planted his feet under the woman's chest and pushed backwards, the momentum caused the woman to cascade through the air landing at Dan's feet. He pinned it to the ground by its neck with his foot, grit his teeth and thrust the pole through the monster's head.

"Dan help me move this guy!" Rick was struggling to move the large man in the driver's seat. For a moment Jennifer thought they were going to dump the man on the pavement, but instead they moved him to the back of the vehicle.

"Hurry!" Dan screamed, bashing one of the oncoming demons in the head. To Jennifer's right a sizeable mob of people were closing in on the SUV from the parking lot.

"They want a ride." tears welled up in her eyes. Cody sniffed. They knew what Rick and Dan would do. Rick backed the SUV from the tree. There was a person who had been pinned between the tree and the SUV, their midsection was a mashed up

"C'mon we gotta move!" roared Dan eliminating another of the cannibals.

"Hurry! They're all over!" Rick yelled. From all sides the damned were closing in, quite quickly most were sprinting, a few became sidetracked by a morsel that was easier to capture. Dan jumped from the passenger seat.

"Cody grab Jenn!" Dan thundered. Cody stood immobile.

"Damn it!" Dan snapped. He doubled back to see what was wrong. Jennifer sat on the ground her legs crossed crying, Cody was standing staring blankly at the advancing mob, like one of "them." Dan gave his friend a good right hook.

"What the fuck is wrong with you, _move!_" Dan hollered. Something seemed to click in Cody's head. He turned and ran to the SUV.

"Open it Rick!" Cody screeched. A ring comprising of mostly the undead was clearly visible around the SUV. Rick was petrified with fear, he fumbled with the button he seemed incapable of performing the simplest task. Click! It opened. Cody had flung himself in the vehicle and slammed the door before Rick took his hand off the button.

"Mother fuck! Mother _fuck!_" Dan could be seen carrying Jennifer, he set her in the back and hopped into the front seat and slammed the door.

"Fuckin' punch it!" he barked. The SUV jolted as Rick collided with numerous of the undead and a few he thought were "normal" people. He didn't even care; it was all-automatic to him now. They were now clear of the school, Dan had been right they were much safer the farther from the school they went. No one was speaking, with the exception of Dan who was really just cussing brutally.

"Fuck! Jesus fuck! Son of a bitch, mother fucker!" Rick and Jennifer were good friends of Dan, they had come to know that in any extreme circumstance if he was angry sad or scared Dan would let loose with a tirade of profanity. He was now punching the glove compartment rapidly until it had broken. He then wheeled on Rick.

"Stay on the goddamn road you dumb fuck!" He targeted Cody next.

"You, what the fuck was that back there? Almost got us killed!" Now he glared at Jennifer.

"Y, you all right?" he spat angrily. She stared at him with her icy blue eyes. Dan put his head against the window and watched as his hometown went to hell. His lower lip quivered, he hoped none of the others had noticed.

Time passed no one had spoken yet. The radio was on; it was tuned to an oldies station. Nobody had cared to change it, they were in deep thought. The song _That's Life _by Frank Sinatra. If Rick had seen something like this in a movie he probably would have laughed

_"...your ridin' high in April, shot down in May..."_

A man tumbled from the roof of his house in a deadly embrace with a deformed old woman.

_"...but I don't let it let it get me down.."_

Numerous seemingly dead bodies reanimated into the grotesque cannibals.

Rick turned off the radio, he couldn't listen to it, it was scaring him, why he really didn't know.

Jennifer had recovered though she still felt guilty leaving those people behind. She was the first to speak asking the questions they all had on their minds.

"Where are we going?" she had so many questions but she forced herself to slow down. Rick replied almost instantly.

"My grandmother's house. They have quite an arsenal of weapons there. Me and my brother's trap guns are there and my dad's old hunting rifle and shotguns too." Rick had started trapshooting about a year ago when just before his grandfather had died, he was rather good he thought.

"What about _our_ families?" Cody inquired he'd figured that the real reason they were going to Rick's grandparent's house was so Rick could see if they were alright.

" We need protection we'll figure out what to do from there Besides my grandparents are dead." Rick was rather annoyed with Cody. They weren't the best of friends, in fact he wouldn't even know him if Jennifer hadn't introduced him. He could see Dan give Cody a quick glare. The two of them seemed to tolerate each other, they allowed to be recognized as friends but Rick wasn't entirely sure half the time this was true.

"You intend on shooting them!" Jennifer squealed.

"What the hell do you want us to do negotiate with them, or some sort of bullshit!" Dan snapped. "Wait, that's what this fuckin hippy here would say!" he spat at Cody.

"Cool it! Dan shut up, like a woman with PMS!" Rick sneered, Dan took any blows to his manhood quite strongly, and he turned to stare out the window. Cody's father had been an anti-war activist during the Vietnam War; he'd ran to Canada when drafted. Dan who worshipped the military and a proud patriot, who's father had been wounded physically and mentally during the war. He was never let near Cody's house for fear he might go after Cody's father. This was the source of the problem between Cody and Dan.

"So." Rick started. "What the hell is going on Dan, I know you know something."

"Trust me wait till we get inside. You'll wanna be sitting down, and make sure you aren't holding any of those loaded guns." Dan's temper was starting to taper off. Rick looked as if he was to persist in the same question.

"Trust me." said Dan reassuringly. A few minutes passed in silence.

"Ok, we're almost here just down this street. Thankfully there were very few undead wandering the street. Rick thanked god, he wasn't very religious but now was a good as time as ever. Then without warning there was a high pitched shriek, Jennifer seemed to jump out of her seat.

"Forgot about him..." she said pointing to a moaning man, the owner of the SUV. He was average height, in his mid forties he wore a tan jacket a red and white shirt with the collar sloppily popped and had black Dickies pants. His face was round and friendly looking and he had a brown mustache.

"Oah, what the hell?" he mumbled. This could not of come at a worse time, thought Jennifer. Well it could but this was still a really bad time, pulling into the driveway they would be confronted by a complete stranger whose car they stole all in an environment infested with those things.

Rick's grandparents house was located at the top of a gently sloping hill which the driveway cut around. About a hundred feet below the driveway was a creek which lead to a shopping plaza further upstream. The front yard was clear, the back yard though which was up on level ground behind the house seemed quiet enough but that meant nothing.

"Ugh...Wha? Who the hell are you?" the man blurted obviously shocked to see four adolescents who had commandeered his vehicle.

"We saved your ass back there so chill!" Dan said without looking back.

"Who are you and where's Sara!" demanded the man. He knew that there was only a sliver of a chance these kids would know anything about his daughter.

"Listen! We'll sort this out when we get inside, it's not safe!" Rick whispered fiercely.

"Yah, what he said." Dan chuckled to himself.

"Where are we why the hell did you take my car!" the man said very loudly as he exited the car.

Cody turned and let loose something Rick was unable to decipher besides "you shut the fuck up" in a quick hushed voice.

"I'm not moving until someone tells me what's going on!" he stood arms folded at the steps leading down to the creek he looked very much like a child. Rick looked at the basement door leading into the house. The window was smashed, allowing some one access to the house that shouldn't have been there. Someone was inside.

"Dude shut _up_!" Dan groaned at the man. Rick turned his attention back on the door. There was a scream. Dan was already on the move, followed by Jennifer and Cody. One of the things had grabbed the mustache man from behind. Before any of them got to him the man had twisted free and gave the creature a full force kick which sent it tumbling down the stairs splashing onto the creek bed.

"Ok, let's get inside!" said Dan chidingly to the man who did not hesitate this time.

Rick shut the door behind theme. He covered Cody's mouth before he could speak.

"I think someone or something's in here so be quiet." Jennifer looked at him with wide fearful eyes.

"They might be really people, I don't know..."

"Mmpf!" Cody emitted a strange muffled sound.

"Oh sorry." Rick removed his hand from Cody's mouth.

"Let's just be quiet ok?" Rick said, he looked for a weapon. He grabbed a broom and unscrewed the brush, Dan had a pipe and Cody was holding a screwdriver. If this wasn't such a serious situation Rick would of laughed, what the hell would you do with a screw driver?

Dan and Rick took the lead with Cody behind lastly Jennifer and the man. The movement they had heard before stopped and heavy breathing could be heard.

"Ready." Dan whispered. Rick nodded his heart pounding at an alarming rate.

Dan threw open the door and charged into the kitchen.

----------------------------------------------------

Ok I haven't updated in awhile but I'll continue too. Chapter 4 should be up soon and then there might be a bit of a break again. Anyway please I would love some feedback, I got the whole story pretty much outlined in my head I just gotta get it on paper.


	4. Chapter 4: Uninvited Guests

**Reign of the Rancid**

**------------------------------**

**Nothing much to say, updates may slow down a bit since I've caught up with what I've written in my not book. Please leave some feed back and enjoy. I think I am going to have to change the rating to M do to the language of some of the characters. I'm not sure though so if anyone could leave feedback whether I should or not that would be nice.**

**------------------------------**

Chapter 4: Uninvited Guests

Dan charged in first, he had only taken a step before he roared in pain one hand clutching his face, the other swinging his metal pole around wildly. Rick lowered himself into a crouching stance and barreled through the threshold. He parried one of Dan's wild blows and then thrust the broom handle at the first figure in the kitchen.

"Oof!" it grabbed the makeshift spear with both hands but was pushed back into the counter with a crash of broken dishes.

"Hey stop, hold it! Hold it!" it yelped in pain. Rick ceased aggression, it was another person. Rick sized up his former advisory. He was Caucasian, mid twenties, he wore a pink Abercrombie polo with torn jeans spattered with bleach. His hair was bleached blonde, and spiked ridiculously that reminded Rick of Sonic the Hedgehog. Everything about the guy screamed frat boy. Dan had recovered, muttering various cuss words when he heard a shuffling. In the corner of the kitchen a petite brunette haired young woman stepped out from the pantry. She was the same age as the frat boy, wore the same clothes and was very attractive. Dan caught himself staring.

"Get that outta my face!" ordered the frat boy. Rick lowered the broom handle.

"Sorry, who are you and what are you doing here?" Rick inquired trying to stay polite. "Scared the hell outta us."

"You did the same to us, and I could ask you the same thing. What are _you_ doing here?" The blonde haired man said pushing his finger into Rick's chest slightly as he spoke. There was a loud crashing noise from the living room and a man appeared holding a plunger. He was in his late twenties, had medium brown hair in the same military style cut as Dan and Rick only tighter. He was about the same height as Dan, but shorter than the middle aged man they'd recently met. He was lean, muscular but not built like a football player. His fly was open. The man took a look at the new comers.

"Can't even take a piss around here..."he tossed the plunger away and went to flop on the sofa.

Rick looked to the frat boy one eyebrow raised in curiosity.

"Yeah he's a friendly one." he said sarcastically.

"Let's all have a seat." Tom had appeared at the top of the stairs. Everyone nodded in agreement and made they're way to the living room.

Introductions were made all around. The frat boy was named Dillan Burns. He and his girlfriend Alexandra Kessinger, the brunette had come from a university in Durham a large city in just about the middle of New York. They had been on their way to stay a weekend at Alexandra's parent's house. The other man was Phillip Johnson, he didn't elaborate on where he was from only that he had met up with Dillan and Alexandra when the chaos ensued. Alexandra then told Phillip he shouldn't be so modest. She explained that he had saved herself and Dillan, helping them escape from their car after it hand been surrounded by the "zombies" as she called them.

"Zombies?" Jennifer said softly.

"Yeah you better believe it." Dillan said taking out a cigarette.

"Don't smoke in here." Dan said slightly annoyed. Rick didn't even care.

"Does it really matter anymore?" Alexandra slapped her boyfriend on the back of the head.

"Put it out Dill!" she ordered. The was a huff of exasperation from the man with the mustache, who they all now knew as Tom. He had been on his way to the school to get his daughter when he crashed and Rick and his friends commandeered his SUV.

"Someone want to tell us what's going on!" Cody snapped, his demand directed at nobody in particular.

"No, I really don't that's why you all can shut the hell up and watch this crap." Phillip motioned to the television.

Everyone besides Phillip, who had gotten up and left the room seemed transfixed on the television. It was on CNN, there was various videos of the chaos, soldiers firing on a crowd of violent people, a birds eye view of a group of people being mauled and more military forces appearing to erect some sort of barricade. There was a voice over:

"It's Friday, May 24 2014 12:56 p.m. Today's Headlines" It cut to the news desk, a clean cut man with glasses wearing a suit.

"Good afternoon, we are continuing to cover the events unfolding in the state of New York. White House official Hennery Patterson held a press conference with startling information on these gruesome events. We shall show it again, but first out to our correspondent in the field Mia Canseco."

The canera cut to a woman with light brown skin, and dark brown hair. Behind her a group of what appeared to be National Guardsman were shoving people into trucks, and firing their old Vietnam era M-16's and others.

"That's in Hillsbury, the next town over!" Rick said amazed.

"Robert, we are here with the National Guard, this unit in particular will be the last to pull out with civilians. After this unit pulls out New York will be sealed off just as Mr. Patterson had stated earlier."

"What, they're leaving us here!" Dillan yelled angrily. Alexandra coaxed him back into his chair. The woman continued.

"It appears the infected are spreading to rapidly and previous estimates of evacuating up to 30 of the population has dropped severely. It seems about only 3 of the total population has been evacuated by the government."

"Mia." The male anchor said in a audibly shaky voice. "Where are these attacks in greatest concentration?"

"It appears to be between the cities Durham, and Buffalo. I am in the exact center of the of the chaos here in Hillsbury."

"Perfect!" Phillip laughed grimly, he had reentered the room.

"You, Nick."

"My names Rick." Rick replied staring at the T.V.

"Yeah, whatever where did your grandparents keep the booze?"

"They didn't drink." Rick said still focused on the reporter.

"Great..." Phillip flopped on the couch looking beaten.

The television was now back on the male anchor.

"We'll now replay the news conference held earlier by Henry Patterson the White House official."

A man in a blue suit stood at a podium with the White House emblem behind him.

"Ladies and gentlemen it was requested by President Moore that I cut to the chase. As we all know about a year ago we were contacted by the Syrian's hierarchy asking for help."

Syria and America didn't have any sort of friendly relationship. If Syria needed help from the U.S.A. it must have been serious.

Patterson continued.

"A rouge terrorist cell linked to Al-Quida had come up with a biological weapon of awesome proportions."

Patterson went on and on. It seemed that the government had brought back the virus to be studied, to come up with a potential vaccine incase any other rouge states or terrorist cells had gotten a hold of it. The official also said the military had taken a look at it, made it more potent. Funding for the research was dropped as well as the idea of using it as a weapon. The government ever vigilant against any possible terrorist attack hired a PMC that had a very advanced scientific research lab in the Appalachians of New York state. A PMC known as Titanium International. They were to continue research there it would be more cost effective for the government. A truck, a few weeks back had crashed. It was well publicized for a few days but in the end the bio-hazard folks from Titanium said it was clean. Their word must of been good enough because there was no further inquiry.

"Now we have a member of Titanium International here with us. Head of Medical research Dr. Trowalski. He was a very large man, overweight. He had a tough demeanor about him though.

"We know very little about the virus, we've never actually seen it's effects on humans." he said drowsily.

"Yeah, bullshit." Cody jeered at the television set.

"Shut up and watch." Dan said irritably.

"We know that the virus is transferred through the fluids of an infected person." He took a breath.

"The infected, they are not the same people they once were. Once the virus has taken hold they are gone. They are literally dead. We do not know how but the virus kills the subject. Within a few seconds to a few hours the body reanimates." There was a large commotion from the reporters standing below the man. One reporter could be heard.

"You mean these are like, like zombies?" Dr. Trowalski ignored this and continued.

"They will not recognize friends or family. Any infected are highly dangerous and highly contagious. This is to anyone within the state of New York, get to the bases and evacuation centers and if you come across an infected and are forced to, do not hesitate to eliminate the threat."

Henery Patterson stepped back up onto the podium.

"We have various evacuation centers set up for people to go to. Let it be known that every sports, arena and every city shall have one. But our three largest centers shall be located in Buffalo, Durham and New York City. New York being the largest Durham being the second and Buffalo being the third largest center. These are do to the fact that we have unfortunately come to the decision that we must blockade all of New York state. Do not attempt to leave, the National Guard, the Coast Guard and the Canadian Military have every possible inch of the borders well barricaded. There is also a ten mile buffer zone surrounding the already well defended border, for the public's safety. Please if you are New York again make your way to the bases. There are also search and rescue teams out and they will find you and bring you to safety." Dillan snatched up the remote and turned off the television.

"Screw this let's get to Hillsbury before they leave!" Tom shook his head angrily.

"I have to find Sara, you ain't taking my car I can tell you that much!" Phillip stood addressing Tom.

"Honestly Tom your daughters probably dead, or worse. And you," He turned facing Dillan. "The Guard will have left by the time we get there, if they haven't already."

"I gotta call my family." Rick said reaching in his pocket. "Crap...lost my phone."

"Here." Dan tossed his phone to Rick. "My Dad's in Minnesota, business crap I'll call him later." Dan's father frequently left on business, leaving his seventeen year old son home up to times as long as two weeks. Dan's mother had died during his freshman year, Dan had no siblings.

Cody, Jennifer and Rick went off to their own corner of the room and called their families. The others seemed to have already done so.

"Well, my family got out. The Guard must of got them in time. My dad said they were in a refugee center in Pennsylvania." Rick said snapping Dan's phone shut and tossing it back to it's owner. There were a few looks of what looked like jealousy or disgust. Why should his family make it out and not them? Rick also felt a tinge of betrayal, they just left him, but he understood. Cody looked a bit upset.

"My mom said they were going to Durham, the center their. My brother was on a field trip to the Museum, and my mom said she'd taken my sister along, she was chaperoning. Their at the center in Durham, so I'll guess that's our next stop." he said looking at Dan and Rick. Jennifer was staring at the ground, Dan spotted a tear fall from her face and hit the carpet.

"I couldn't get an answer, not my brother, my sister, my father or my mom." she sobbed. There were a few moments of awkward silence, then Rick went to comfort his friend. Phillip stood.

"Ok, we're not getting rescued, so we need a plan."

"We go to Durham." Cody proclaimed.

"No way Buffalos closer, we can pass through Hillsbury, if the Guard has left we can go to Buffalo." Phillip threw his hands in the air exasperated.

"Shut up! God damn! Look, if we want to get anywhere without getting killed we need transportation. And Tommy boy here is on his way to rescue his daughter right?" he said motioning to Tom.

"Yeah I am so, piss off." he said annoyed turning to leave.

"Hey hey, hold the phone here. You aren't gonna make it two steps outta your car by yourself. I got an idea." Tom stopped and turned around.

"Ok let's here it and be quick!" he barked.

"We're already have a few advantages here, we got a group of us, a vehicle and we know what's goin on. We're organized, not running around with our heads of our asses like ninety percent of everyone else out there!" he said pointing out the living room window before continuing.

"Now Tom wants to rescue his daughter, we can help him or we can kill him and take his ride." Everyone in the group looked at him horror struck.

"Just kidding." he smirked. "Burges I got a proposal." Tom eyed Phillip warily a few moments.

"What!" he said after a few moments.

"We help you find your daughter, and in return you give us all a lift to the center in Buffalo."

"No way!" Cody cut in. "We go to Durham!" Phillip eyed the others, they seemed to side with Cody. It was stupid, his family was already in the center safe and sound. Why the hell would they waste an extra hour and a half on the road if they didn't need to. Of course with the entire populous running around eating each other he expected the time on the road would double.

"Fine, Durham!" he said defeated, but sternly. Tom thought the whole thing over. He wasn't to fond of this Phillip at the moment but he could really use the help.

"Alright, I'll do it. But we got to leave now!"

"Wait, wait! Hold up a sec. Who ever said that we agree to this charade?" Dillan said confused.

"You don't have to just stay here." Phillip said disconcerted. Dan looked to Rick.

"You like it?"

"It's a plan." he replied "What about you Jenn?"

"What about _my_ family!" she sobbed. Phillip rolled his eyes and muttered something to himself.

"Ok I got it. We go to her house." He said motioning to Jennifer. "See if anyone's left, then find someplace to stay for the night, hopefully here then tomorrow we go to the school see what's up the we go to Durham!" Phillip said breathing a little bit quicker.

"What about Sara!" Tom said angrily.

"Burges, if she hasn't found some place safe yet she is probably dead, or running around..." Phillip stopped, Tom's knuckles were clenched and he was shaking. Not so much out of anger, but fear and the shock of Phillip's blunt honesty.

"So does it sound good?" Phillip said, not looking at Tom.

"All seemed to be in agreement, even Tom. Then all eyes fell on Dillan, who obviously was not fond of Phillip.

"Yeah, sounds alright..." he said vanquished.

"Ok, we need to get as much food and water as we can."

"Um, yeah nobody really lives here, we were going to rent it out. There's no food, just some munchies in the cupboard." Before Phillip could mutter something in disgust or Dan curse in anger Jennifer chimed in.

"We can get food from my place." she seemed to bring her self back, and was speaking again.

"That'll have to do, but we'll need water anything that'll hold it." Phillip scratched his head. "Now we need to scrounge up some weapons."

"Oh! Forgot to mention that." Rick lied, heading towards the stairs leading to the second floor. He wasn't entirely sure he could trust these people when he first met them. Now even if he still didn't, he had no choice. H

The second floor of the house was old, dusty. His grandparents almost never went up there when they were in their later years. Rick lead Tom, Dan and Phillip to a dusty old bedroom, his father's old room. In the corner was a gun rack with numerous shotguns and a .22 rifle.

"Ok let's see what we got here." Phillip said making his way towards the gun rack.

"I'm takin mine, no question." Rick said with authority. He grabbed his weapon. It was a Stogeor over and under shotgun, basically a double barrel only the barrels were aligned vertically.

"Tom, you should take this." Dan said heaving a large, long barreled pump action shotgun. Phillip took the .22. It was a semi automatic rifle. It was magazine fed and had a scope fitted atop, for when his father used to hunt small game.

"I'll take this, got any ammo?" He said racking the slide back and forth.

"Yeah hold on, let's figure out the rest of these."

"Rick, I'm a use stubby." Dan said smiling. He had an old and battered looking single barrel shotgun, it had been sawed off to shorten it. Ironically Rick's it had been given to Rick's grandfather by a police officer.

"How about this?" Tom said pointing to another breech loading shotgun. Phillip looked at it and shook his head.

"Unless there's some 16 gauge ammunition around here we won't take it, that shit is hard to find." Rick nodded in agreement.

"That just leaves the 20 gauge." Rick said motioning to a smaller, single barreled shotgun.

"We should bring it all down and make sure everyone knows how to use'em." Dan said cracking his open.

"Good idea." Phillip said.

Their arsenal consisted of four shotguns, three were 12 gauge and one was a 20 gauge. They had eight boxes of ammo for each gauge. They had about 130 rounds of .22. Each box held twenty five shells. Phillip, who seemed to have a great deal of knowledge about fire arms instructed every one on how to use each weapon.

"Now, with this .22, it's a damn pea shooter, and it's only got one mag so reloadings gunna be a bitch. So I made these." Phillip pulled out what looked a flat slivery object.

"Tinfoil and coat hangers. It's a redneck stripper clip." Dan laughed, while the rest gawked not having the slightest clue what a stripper clip did.

"See you keep the bullet's in here and then when you run out..." He placed the stripper clip over the magazine and pushed the bullets into it. "You can reload allot faster. I only made three, I'll make some more, their really fragile so if anyone else uses this be careful."

"I want that one, I shot it when I was a kid." Dillan blurted.

"No, I'll be taking this one, do you know anything about this weapon." Phillip asked with a smirk.

"Um, a little." Dillan responded confused.

"This is a .22, like I said before it's like a glorified bb gun, at least that's how I see it. Anyway you gotta hit those pricks out there in the head. At least with the shotgun you can throw'em off balance or take a bigass chunk out. You gotta be able to aim and fire quickly with this."

"And what are you some sort of sniper?" Dillan jeered.

"No, I'm the designated marksman." Phillip chuckled to himself. He walked to the bathroom leaving Dillan looking perplexed yet again.

"Here take the twenty." Dan said handing the weapon to Dillan. Dillan frowned momentarily, seeing that the weapon wasn't as powerful as the other shotguns.

"All the ammo is yours, we don't got another twenty." Dan continued handing Dillan boxes of twenty gauge shells. " Have your girl hold on to the extra shells." Dillan glared at Dan.

"Her name is Alexandra!" he said agitated.

"Ok, chill dude."

Those with weapons had used plastic bags fastened to their hips were they kept shells for use. Any other extra ammunition was given to either Cody, Jennifer or Alexandra. The unarmed has backpacks were they kept supplies, matches, ammunition, the few bags of munchies they had found and jugs of water.

"Put the news back on." Cody said nodding to Rick.

"Alright..." But he was cut off by a shrill scream. Phillip came out of the bathroom.

"Fuckin twice..."He muttered to himself. The survivors converged on the kitchen, the source of the scream. It was Alexandra.

"What?" Phillip said irritably zipping up his fly. Dan sputtered laughing, then he felt weird. What a strange time to laugh.

"One's coming up the steps!" she pointed. Up the stone steps a woman, very torn up, fresh blood ran all over her body and her hair was matted with dried blood.

"C'mon baby, get back." Dillan said softly pulling Alexandra away from the window.

"Fernandez, Take uh, Rick and check the rest of the yard, don't go out just look out the windows then get back here!" Dan nodded and took off followed by Rick. Phillip cocked the .22. The woman was alone, it wasn't right. Those things always were in packs.

"Burges let's go, watch my back I'll take care of it." Tom nodded, and pumped the shotgun, ejecting an unspent shell.

"We'll have to work on that..." Tom said.

"Come on we'll get it later." Phillip threw open the door, and walked quickly out, Tom in tow. Phillip kept his weapon trained on the woman, she looked to be in her thirties, short black hair it had been dyed that way. She was still walking lazily, she stretched out an arm, it had many large cuts and abrasions. She was within fifteen feet of Phillip, she was now on the stone path leading to the kitchen door.

"Help..." she muttered.

"Jesus she's alive!" Tom gasped.

Pop! Pop! Pop! Three very quick staccato shots broke the silence. The woman's head snapped back and a piece of skull followed by a red mist. She fell backwards, her head cracking on the pavement with a sickening _thud! _Then the body rolled down the hill, arms and legs flailing about limply like a rag doll.

Tom stared wide eyed at Phillip.

"Wha, Why did you," but he was cut off.

"You know damn well she was infected!" Phillip said sternly.

"How...there's, there's no proof" Tom stuttered.

"You saw the news! Besides she would of slowed us down anyway. You do want to save Sara right?" Phillip said trying to find Tom's eyes as he stared at his feet. Tom didn't reply.

"It was a matter of time anyway. I did her a favor. I never want to be one of those things." The pair now made their way back to the door.

"Don't tell the others especially the kids." Phillip said gruffly. Tom snorted weakly. When he spoke his voice was slightly shaky.

"Kids, your all kids I'm old enough to e your father."

"No." Phillip spoke solemnly caressing his rifle. "I haven't felt like a kid in a long time." This time it was Tom searching for Phillip's eyes as he stared at his rifle.

"Besides." Phillip piped looking up. "Your not that old Burges."

As they entered Alexandra, who had recovered from the her initial shock handed Tom the shell he had previously ejected.

"You got it?" she asked.

"Yeah don't worry about it." Phillip said, he could sense Tom's gaze but did not look at the man. Rick came walking quickly with Dan.

"There's none outside, we did spot a few a street over though." Rick said his heart jacked.

"Did you,"

"Yeah, anyway we're leaving soon so it shouldn't matter." Phillip said reloading his magazine.

"Wait, now?" Dillan said, confounded. Alexandra sighed.

"Damn it Dill, don't you ever pay attention! I should get that gun, Christ your gunna shoot your self in the ass, some how you'll pull it off."

"I'm sorry! I'm lost though!"

"Yeah we can see that." Dan quipped. Jennifer giggled quietly.

"Ok, gather supplies and get ready in about,"

"Oh fuck!" Cody screamed. "More!" he pointed out the window, more were coming from the steps and from the next street over by the sound of the moans.

"Let's go!" Tom boomed, he threw open the basement door and bounded down the steps.

"Get your shit come on!" screamed Cody picking up a backpack full of shells. Dillan was half way down the stairs when he turned around causing everyone aside from Tom to come to a halt.

"Are they in the house?"

"MOVE!" Phillip pushed Dillan down the remaining stairs.

When the group opened the door they saw Tom struggling to open the SUV door.

"It's jammed!" he yelled in a panicky voice. Phillip could be heard laughing grimly.

"Huh, huh perfect!"

"Mother fucker! Son of a bitch, fuckin shit fuck!" Dan was cursing madly, covering up his fear as he fumbled with a shotgun shell.

"Dan!" Jennifer screamed. One of "them" was on the hill above Dan. Jennifer had to do something.

The was the crack of a shotgun and a large portion of the zombie's head was obliterated. Dan turned to see Jennifer wielding Tom's very large pump action. she was holding it from the hip, barrel smoking. He didn't see that the corpse was teetering and it fell right onto him.

"Got it!" Tom yelled excitedly.

"Let's move! Fall back!" Phillip yelled, he took a quick shot. It caught a zombie right twixt the eyes, it continued running for a few steps then petered out and fell. Dillan had wrapped his one arm around Alexandra and guided her towards the car. He fired, and caught a beast in the neck.

"Get in! He pushed Alexandra inside, past Cody and Jennifer.

"Where's Rick?" Cody yelled trying to be heard over the .22 that was being fired from the passenger seat.

"DILL!" Alexandra squealed. To his right, a women with a hole in the side of her cheek grinned eerily at Dillan before charging.

_Click!_

"Oh shit!" He had forgotten to reload after firing his last round. He froze in cold fear as the wretched creature closed in for the kill. Then he felt a tender hand on his shoulder.

"Dill..." he heard Alexandra whimper. In snapped into action. Using the butt of his weapon he trusted it straight into the zombie's face stunning it. He dove into the SUV and Cody slammed the door shut. His head rested in Alexandra's lap. He wrapped his arms around her and they both embraced passionately.

"Oh Christ!" he could hear Phillip moan.

Rick let the two shots rip from his weapon in rapid succession, taking an enormous chunk out of a zombie's chest and hurling it backwards. He could hear voices calling him and turned. Everyone was in the SUV. There was a female zombie attacking the right door. Rick reloaded and shouldered his weapon but realized he'd probably hit his friends in side. The back door opened.

"Rick hurry!" Cody screamed. Rick made a beeline, the female zombie turned and saw. It started after him but was knocked down when the door opened taking out it's legs.

"Bitch!" he could hear Dillan scream.

Rick hopped inside.

"We're gone!" Tom bellowed. He started down the long drive way. Why was it so long! He could go fast, there was a good chance they would topple over into the creek bed.

"Come on move it!" Phillip said, using one of his homemade stripper clips to reload the magazine.

"Wait!" shrieked Jennifer.

"Where's Dan!"

----------------------------------------------------

**Ok so I'm pretty much caught up to what I've written so far. Like I said I use a notebook first then type my story out. I would really like some more reviews! Please feel free to share your opinions, criticisms and all that stuff. Updates will definitely slow down, at least for maybe a couple weeks. I hope to get at least a chapter a week for now. Again I sound like a broken record but tell me what you like, or dislike about my story, I'm enjoying writing this one allot.**


	5. Chapter 5: Meet The Goodmans

**12/10/07- Holy hell, I had a lot of editing to do in this Chapter! I got to start rereading my work more thoroughly**

**Reign Of The Rancid**

**------------------------------**

Chapter 5: Meet The Goodman's

Dan remained still under the carcass, he was covered in the creatures blood and brain matter. It had fallen on top of him after Jennifer had slain the foul beast. He had froze, mouth and eyes closed he knew if any fluids came in contact with him he might as well shoot himself and save the others the trouble. He was also afraid if he moved he would attract the attention of the others. He cautiously picked up his weapon, reloaded it and turned to the SUV.

"Shit!" The vehicle was already quite a ways down the winding drive way, half way down the hill.

"Reyahh!" Dan turned to late, he was tackled to the ground by one of the beasts, he used his weapon to keep it's snapping jaws at bay and tried his best to avoid it's flailing arms. He managed to maneuver his feet under and kick the creature off, he then quickly put a round in it's face.

"Dan!" Rick could be seen sitting in the back of the SUV firing and waving his hands, he had spotted Dan at the top of the hill. Dan ejected his spent shell and took off after the SUV, down the winding pavement.

"Tom turn the car around!" screamed Jennifer.

"No! If we stay they'll swamp us!" Phillip roared shaking his head vigorously. It was true, there where a large number of infected and they were all converging on the SUV. The vehicle continued descending down the winding hillside, luckily for Dan they could not speed up or there was a great chance the SUV would cascade over the side of the hill probably not stopping until it landed in the creek far below.

Dan's feet pounded the pavement hard as he tried to make it to the automobile. Phillip was now visible, his upper torso stuck up through the sunroof firing rapidly with the old rifle. A crazy leapt at Dan from his left on the hillside. Dan fired haphazardly. The buckshot caught the mutilated woman in the chest. It caused her to halt mid air before crashing to the concrete angrily.

"Oh shit, oh shit!" Dan repeated over and over. He was truly frightened, the thought of dying was bad but being mauled to death by these things all alone was to much for him, fear aided his legs as he pushed on, he was slowly catching up to his quarry.

"You frat boy reload!" Phillip tossed the .22 at Dillan who surprisingly complied immediately.

"Here!" Jennifer handed Phillip the pump action. No sooner was the weapon in his hands Alexandra screamed. One of the more speedy savages has leapt onto the front of the SUV. It then went straight for Phillip's exposed head and torso. Phillip brought the weapon up to keep the creature from ripping his throat out. It stared hungrily at him, with it's eyes filmed over slobbering like a dog.

"Fuck you!" Phillip brought up the butt of his weapon and smashed the side of it's head, it careened off the vehicle and continued down until it came to a stop in the creek bed. Two of the undead where only feet behind Dan, and flanked either side of him. There was the report of a shotgun as one was felled. Phillip pumped and took aim and fired again, taking the head of the second clean off of it's shoulders.

"Oh shit! Oh shit!" Dan screamed even louder, he was so close, he stretched out to grab Rick's hand.

"Hurry!" Rick yelled. The SUV was on the final leg of the deadly race, the street was within sight. Tom put more pressure on the pedal, they might make it he wasn't about to get them all killed now waiting for some kid.

Dan was tired, it hit him like a ton of bricks, he could feel his pace slowing, each breath more ragged and more hollow than the last.

"Gotchya!" Rick latched two hands and pulled has hard as he could, Dan made an odd hop-skip jump and collapsed onto Rick breathing extremely hard and heavy.

"Shut that damn door!" Phillip said ducking back inside the car to reload. Jennifer shut the back door shakily, the undead were still pursuing the vehicle, although they would never catch up now that Tom was on the road. Dan had started to regain his breath and immediately started with a bout of cussing. After half a minute he calmed down.

"Why did you leave?" he said trying to stay calm.

"We thought you were with us..." Jennifer said quietly, she like Rick and Cody felt guilty for almost forgetting their friend. Phillip turned around in the front seat.

"Ok we gotta go over some shit before we get there. We all can't go in, some people have to guard the car."

"Where are we going?" Dillan asked. Phillip rolled his eyes in frustration, then thrust his finger at Jennifer.

"To Miss Goodman's house."

"We'll go in, you guys can stay with the car." Rick said, he had seemed to gather his courage now that they were out of immediate danger. "Me, Cody and Dan."

"And me!" Jennifer cut in angrily. Phillip groaned, he was tired this whole situation was utterly pointless, but he knew protesting would be hopeless.

"I'm coming too, we'll need supplies." He then turned and looked Jennifer in the eyes.

"I hope your prepared for the worse, at least it won't be a surprise then." Phillip turned back and started reloading the weapons.

"Asshole..." Rick muttered under his breath.

The ride to Jennifer's house was uneventful, no one spoke only Jennifer who gave directions to Tom who would at most grunt in reply. The muffled sounds of chaos could be heard outside. There were very few other vehicles on the road, and when ever they came across one Rick's heart skipped a beat, people weren't exactly obeying the rules of the road.

"Take a left here it's house 258." her voice was very soft now.

"No way, we won't even make it out of the damn car!" Dillan protested. Outside of the car was indeed as hellish as it could get. It seemed that there where only a few infected, but those who weren't couldn't tell who was. The neighbor hood was destroying itself, everyone was afraid of everything, anything that moved was hostile.

"There's no way, we're turning back!" Tom said, he started to reverse the car.

"NO!" Jennifer shrieked, lunging at Tom's shotgun.

"We had a deal!" she bawled. Tom stopped the car, and tapped his fists on the wheel rapidly, engulfed in his thoughts. This was a bad idea...

"Damnit, how far!" he spat.

"Next street over!" Dan said quickly trying to stand up.

"What! I thought this was...Fuck it!" Tom made a hard left and smashed his foot on the pedal. The SUV tore across someone's large front lawn, through a chain link fence, then through someone's garden shed and eventually onto the next street.

"What the hell!" Cody screamed jarred by the collosions.

"What house!" Tom barked, he was pumped now fear had left him momentarily. Rick was feeling the same way.

"Down the street more!" Tom raced down the street, trying to avoid pedestrians and doing so successfully.

"There!" Jennifer shrieked. Tom smashed the brakes, Dan propelled into the backs of Alexandra and Dillan entangling them all.

"There's now way we can just sit and wait!" Tom said. "We'll drop you off and keep driving around until we see you guys come back out!"

"Whatever!" Phillip said wrenching open the door. It wasn't the best plan, it would leave those entering the house exposed standing in the street waiting for a ride that may not come. If the Goodmans were still alive it would be practically impossible to fit them all inside the SUV.

"Come on!" Rick climbed over the Dillan and Alexandra and helped pull Dan out. Jennifer was already outside, the 20 gauge shotgun in hand.

"Cody?" Rick turned and looked at his friend, he was pressed back against the wall staring looking terrified.

"I'll stay." he managed to say. Rick slammed the door and without even so much as "Good luck" Tom was gone.

The scene that reminded Rick of an opening to a movie he'd seen, it was about WW3 or something in America. There was smoke, car wrecks all over the street and people running pell mell not having the slightest idea what was going on.

They were on Jennifer's front lawn when a stocky man with brown hair came charging towards them waving his arms.

"Help!" he screamed. He slowed down in front of Phillip and pointed to somewhere behind him.

"You gotta help me..." Phillip could see one of the infected closing in on them behind the brown haired man.

"Get in the house!" Phillip bellowed. He kicked the man in the chest causing him to fall over. The struggling man provided a good distraction and the undead attacked him and left the group alone, for now.

Dan had broke the door down with a few hefty kicks. The house itself looked fine, aside from a busted window the outside of the house looked untouched from the chaos that was unfolding. The inside of the house was a different story. Every piece of furniture was over turned and strewn across the rooms, broken glass littered the floor and books and magazines were shredded like confetti blood was spattered randomly around as well.

"You two stay and watch the door, you Nick your with me!" Rick followed slightly annoyed, he found it odd that even at time like this he was still effected by Phillip calling him "Nick."

"I'll go downstairs, check the second floor, holler if you need some help." Phillip opened the basement door and slowly made his way down, he could hear movement.

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"We should just leave!" Dillan was ancy. It was getting risky, it seemed every five minutes the number of infected multiplied exponentially and there was more wreckages in the street.

"Shit!" The vehicle veered off the road onto the front lawns to avoid a burning hulk in the roadway.

"Dill how could you!" Alexandra screamed horrified at the prospect of abandoning their fellow survivors and former savior. Tom and Cody remained silent. For a few fleeting seconds Cody actually considered the proposition of leaving his friends behind, he wanted nothing more than to get to Durham and find his family. He quickly banished the idea from his mind feeling guilty. He shook his head, hair waving through the air.

"No, no we can't." Cody said plainly. Tom kept his eyes on the road, he was in such deep thought dodging cars and people was like a reflex now. He would of liked nothing more than to leave these people and get to the school and find Sara, he had a car, he now had a gun with plenty of ammo. He knew that the three in the back wouldn't allow it though. The vehicle hit the end of the street. He'd make one more pass, maybe two then he'd leave, find away to deal with the three in the back and finally go get Sara.

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"Hello?" Rick said shakily, his confidence had disappeared the moment he started his ascent to the second floor. There was blood all over, Rick thought that the entire family must have been up here there was so much blood, he felt nauseas. He turned and looked at Jennifer's parent's bedroom, there was blood all over the doors, the frame was splintered and little bits of meat that could of only been human flesh dangled from it. Rick was shaking violently, he couldn't even climb onto the second floor, he just stood at the final stair shaking.

"Is any..." he turned and went back down, no one was left anyway.

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Phillip opened the basement door, it was spattered with a little blood and there were bloody footprints leading down the stairs. Gingerly he made his way carefully down each step. When he reached the bottom he came upon a gruesome discovery. A man, presumably Jennifer's father was crouched over a corpse gnawing at the stomach, making a sickening chomping and slurping noises. It suddenly stopped at stared at Phillip a piece of flesh hanging form it's lower jaw.

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Dan kept his eyes on the doorway, Jennifer was crying. It'd hit her when they came into the house, her family was dead, or worse one of those things. She wouldn't be able to pull the trigger if they were.

"Nothings up stairs." Rick lied, he almost tripped on the last stairs in his haste.

"I'll get some supplies." Neither Dan or Jennifer seemed to acknowledge his presence. He started throwing what he thought might be useful in to a black garbage bag. Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Muffled sounds of gunfire could be heard in the basement. Rick ran to the door, and stood in front, afraid to open for fear that something might come out. There was the blast of a shotgun, and Dan could be heard screaming, Jennifer too. Rick turned one of the deadites had entered the house. Just as this was happening Phillip opened the door, staring down the barrel of Rick's shotgun. Rick was looking at something in the other room, he saw the door open and jolted pulling the trigger.

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**I haven't updated in a long time, I know. Anyway, the updates should be more frequent now. Also, I don't know if anyone has sent me a PM, because I honestly don't know how to check them, if someone could tell me in a review that'd be nice. Chapter six should be out fairly soon, Chapter five was so long I kinda split it up. Can't think of anything else so, please leave me some feed back and let me know how it's going. **


	6. Chapter 6: Laying Low

**Reign Of The Rancid**

**------------------------------**

Chapter 6: Laying Low

The buckshot caught the undead women in the chest, it threw her off balance but not before she collapsed on to Daniel Fernandez.

"Jenn!" he screamed in panic. Jennifer fired, the undead women jerked oddly, spraying Dan with dark blood, but only enraging the deadite. Dan continued to wail.

"Help!" he screamed.

Rick could here the commotion but stood stock still. He peered down the stairs at the crumpled form of Phillip. Had he killed him! His heart was going a mile a minute.

"What the fuck!" it roared. "What was that?" he yelled angrily.

"I heard..." Rick realized that Dan was still in trouble, he turned and disappeared from the view of Phillip.

"Get it off!" Dan yelped. He couldn't get the creature off of himself. Jennifer looked around wildly. She spotted a knife by the kitchen floor. As quick as she could she snatched up the knife and plunged it into the zombie's back. It flinched, only for a second but that was all Dan needed to free himself of his attacker. He sent the mangled women sprawling onto the floor. BOOF! The zombie's head exploded. Dan stood up, breathing heavily he scooped up his weapon. Rick inserted a fresh shell and locked the breech when he heard the voice of Phillip behind him.

"What the fuck was that?" Phillip said angrily appearing at the top of the stairs. Rick shrugged feeling guilty, he'd must of fired right over the top of Phillips head before. He was never more thankful that he had missed a target.

"Are my par..." Jennifer stuttered.

"No, we gotta go!" Phillip walked briskly passed the trio and out the door. "Come on!" Rick and Dan got Jennifer moving. It was worse outside now than it had been before. More infected and now more crazed motorists. Prior to entering the house there was only a scant few, now there were many cars screeching across the street, running over people and crashing into houses.

"Where the hell are they?" roared Phillip. Rick viewed a car peel across the road, hit part of an upturned mail truck and somersaulted throughout the air before smashing right though the living room window of a house.

"Watch it!" Dan pushed Rick and Jennifer back as a pick up truck came onto the front lawns and tore right past them.

"Where the hell _are they_?" Phillip repeated. He took aim at an oncoming teenager, his weapon clicked, the magazine was dry. "I'm out!"

Rick was so scared he double tapped the trigger firing two shots in rapid succession into the zombie, it did the job nonetheless.

"Oh my God!" shrieked Jennifer pointing down the street. A large mob of infected and the rest of the populace was making it's way towards their position, the whole situation she felt was very reminiscent of only a few hours ago.

"Run for it!" Phillip screamed. He scooped up Jennifer, he had noticed she was wearing flip-flops and judging by her emotional state he didn't want to take any chances. As the four of them dashed down he street it was clear to Rick he was the slowest. Dan had always held his physical fitness in high esteem and Phillip, even with Jennifer slung over his shoulder was outpacing them both. The screams were getting closer. Rick pointed the shotgun behind him and fired blindly. Only after he'd fired had he realized that he probably killed those who weren't infected at the front of the pack. The screams were so loud now Rick thought his head was about to explode.

"There they are!" Alexandra pointed at three silhouettes leading a large mob. Tom shook his head.

"No way, look at all of them. We'll have to go!" It was the excuse he needed to go find Sara. Cody wouldn't have any of it.

"They would of come back for you!" he blubbered, only half believing his own words. Tom felt a pane of guilt strike him, even worse was when he saw Jennifer who was now running on her own. She reminded him of Sara.

"Hang on!" he screamed, revving the engine Tom cut up the middle of the large group of people. Bodies soared this way and that, there was a sickening feeling as the SUV rolled over what could of only had been people beneath the tires. Dillan opened the side door.

"Come on!" The fraternity boy started firing the pump action into the mass of people before him.

"What took you so long?" Phillip said annoyed. It was ridiculous thought Tom, here they were on the verge of being eaten by a bunch of cannibalistic people, and this asshole was put off by the fact that he, Tom hadn't driven into this bloodbath sooner to rescue his sorry ass. Hell this guy didn't even seem scared which pissed Tom off.

"Gogogo!" Rick yelled slamming the side door. Tom Smashed his foot on the gas, he was surprised that the SUV struggled to push past the people in front. A large man jumped onto the windshield screaming incoherent babble hanging on for dear life.

"Get it the fuck off!" Dillan sputtered, scared.

"Get off!" Phillip grabbed his rifle with one hand, he stuck it out the window and fired a round into the man's flank. The man clutched the side of his gut and fell off the SUV.

"Where are we going?" Cody mumbled after a few minutes of silence.

"Back to the house." Phillip said reloading the .22 magazine. Dillan was back to his old self.

"Uh bro we just came from there remember?" he said airily.

"Listen _bro_," Phillip said mockingly. "It's already five o'clock that gives us four hours give or take till it gets dangerously dark. We need somewhere to spend the night. Dillan retorted immediately.

"Yeah well what about the, _them _their all probably still chillin up on the hill, maybe more have come since we left."

"No I doubt it, their seem to be attracted to people like us,"

"No shit." Dillan interrupted. Phillip ignored the jibe and continued.

"...which means they most likely left in search of more, people."

"Their zombies, I'm gunna say it I mean we all gotta be thinking it." Dillan had a sick smile on his face. "Come on, really why don't we stop by Blockbuster n' pick up a few zombie flicks, maybe we could use some survival tips." he laughed at his own joke.

"Not a bad idea." Phillip was completely serious.

"We're not stopping at no God damned Blockbuster!" Tom said loudly. He felt a little remorse for using the Lord's name in vain, he was always religious, not extreme but he went to church every Sunday and tried to be a good Christian latley though he was felt as if he'd complely forgot about religon.

"Didn't say that, just said we might learn something from them movies." Phillip pulled the slide on the .22 back.

"The world is officially fucked!" Dillan said laughing to himself. He couldn't believe this Phillip, their unofficial leader was a complete crack head. He was thankful this guy had saved him an Alex before, he wouldn't let him know it but he was thankful. This was to much, pretty soon he was going to have to take charge.

They were back at the house in no time, which wasn't a good thing, at least that's what Rick and his friends felt. The SUV went up the drive slowly, like a snail which only worsened the tension. Fortunately the group only spotted a scant three infected on the property. Phillip made quick work by letting loose four rapid shots, his marksmanship amazed Dan.

"You really now how to shoot!" Dan said in awe.

"Thanks." Phillip responded.

"We better pull the car in the garage, I don't want a repeat of what happened last time." Tom said as he pulled the keys from the ignition. Phillip nodded.

"Yeah, but we'd better clear the house first. Someone stay out here with Tom and watch the car. You Nick!"

"It's Rick!" an annoyed Rick barked.

"Whatever, just don't shoot Tom like you almost shot me. Christ, I think I singed my eyebrows I was so close..." He quickly checked his magazine before making his way to the door.

"Alright everyone stack up!" Dillan rolled his eyes, he just plain didn't like Phillip especially when he was giving orders.

"Here!" he tossed the pump action to Tom and picked up a gardening trowel. Dillan checked him self over, brushing off some dirt and picking off those little spiky balls that attach to your clothing, he hated those. When he looked up Phillip and the others were eyeing him curiously.

"Waddaya gunna teach'em how to grow tomatoes?" Phillip said referring to the trowel.

"Hey, it's better than nothing!"

"Can't argue with that." Dan smirked. Phillip opened the door slowly, turned and passed his rifle back to Dillan.

"I'ma try and find something to bash some heads with." He said casually. "I don't want shooting unless we need to, may attract more of'em." Dillan shrugged eagerly taking the rifle.

The basement was dark, dank and scared the hell out of everyone except for Phillip who crept forward quickly, quietly and full of confidence. There was a clatter of something metallic to their right. Phillip turned, motioning for the rest to hold back he silently moved up to a doorway. Inside what appeared to be workshop of sorts a red haired man with no cheeks and a knife protruding from his back shuffled around stupidly, bumping into objects and letting out ghastly moans. Phillip wanted to get it's attention. With a gurgled snarl the man's had snapped around milky eye's on Phillip. Phillip was more than ready for the attack, he nimbly side stepped his attacker and brought the pole down as hard as he could on the beasts head. Dink! The red haired man fell, slain by the single stroke.

"Muaaah!" Dillan froze and looked at the stairs. From where they stood, no one could see the top of the stairs, where the moan had originated from.

"There's more up there!" Alexandra hissed. Moaned again.

"Muaaah!" It was louder and Alexandra guessed that it must have been at the threshold of the doorway. Then something odd happened, the zombie started to moan but promptly tumbled down the stairs. Dillan found himself laughing, Alexandra actually giggled. Cody felt appalled, it had only been a few horrifying hours and these people where acting as if this sort of thing happened everyday. Even was almost his normal self.

"It's different." Alexandra said quietly, she was scared again. This deadite was certainly different. Unlike the one Phillip had just dispatched this one moved a lot slower, struggling to get up. It's blood was much darker, to the point were it was practically black, and much thicker than regular blood. There creature itself looked older, like it had started to rot and decay it's skin was gray and cracked in places.

"Remember, this is what happens in the later stages of infection. They get slower, but that black shit, it's supposed to be more potent, get that in your blood and you'll die quicker and turn into one of these pricks faster." Phillip said eyeing the zombie. Dink! Dink! Dink! Surprisingly, it appeared it could with stand more trauma than it's former comrade. Looks can be deceiving.

The rest of the house was safe. After Tom pulled the vehicle into the garage, he and Phillip dragged the corpses outside sending them tumbling down the hill. Then everyone immediately went about boarding up every window and doorway on the first floor and in the basement. Frequently a few "guests" would show up causing Tom and Phillip to go out and dispose of them.

"They gotta be attracted to the noise." Cody said as his pudgy hand shook trying to hold a nail steady.

"Probably, at least we're almost finished." Rick said checking the sheet of plywood as he placed it over a window.

"All finished!" Dan strolled into the room accompanied by Dillan and the girls.

"We're just finishing up." Rick had the final nail in place.

BLAM! The sound of the pump action jolted the members of the party. Phillip and Tom could be seen entering the house from the kitchen door.

"Finished? Good. Help me out here Burges." The two started boarding up the final passage the undead would be able to use. Alexandra threw herself on the couch lazily and turned on the television.

"Come on babe, it's the same thing on every channel." Phillip moaned wrapping his arm around Alexandra.

"Holy hell! Go back!" Rick said. Alexandra pointed the remote at the television and mashed the Channel Down button with purpose.

"What's this?" Tom questioned as he came in from the kitchen.

Cody turned and sshed him while the others watched the news anchor with intrigue. It was the same man that they had seen earlier, Dan said he could vaguely remember the man's name being Robert.

"It appears the orders came straight from the top. Confirmed by General Rimmler himself. Video footage was shot by a women who had failed to leave the twenty mile buffer zone. The video though, has been confiscated. In a press conference held about and hour ago General Rimmler also stated that if it was to be released it would "damage the moral of the American people." Protesters have taken to the streets in the nations capital calling for prosecution of the soldiers in question. The whole incident is reminiscent of the Vietnam era protests. Many of the protesters have compared the US troops to Nazi concentration camp guards or go as far as to hold up pickett signs labeled "Murderers"."

"Damn hippie fucks!" growled Phillip. Dan gritted his teeth in agreement.

"Hell yeah man!" Cody shifted in his seat uncomfortably. The anchor went on to elaborate further. The event in question had taken place only a few hours ago. It seemed that a group of about fifty survivors fleeing in a convoy of civilian vehicles failed to stop at a checkpoint and were subsequently shot, the casualty report was thirty four dead, sixteen wounded, and two were taken into custody without any injuries. It appears it was standard procedure, if any refugees failed to stop at the check points they would be killed. General Rimmler emphasized that this specific situation occurred before the borders where locked down. They couldn't risk the infection spreading. Someone turned the television off.

"So what, now we're gunna be killed if we try to escape this hellhole. That's bullshit!" Dillan kicked a wooden coffee table angrily.

"Didn't you listen, for real do you got ADD? If we stroll to the border at comply with the Guard we'll be put into a camp of some sort, if we race across and try to just skip out and fail to take orders _then _we'll be killed." Phillip paused taking a sip from a gallon of water. "Honestly we're better off going to one of the Emergency centers, I'm guessing the Guard has some trigger happy dudes and it'll only be worse when they see us with guns."

"We could just throw'em away, get rid of them." Alexandra chimed in.

"Do you honestly want to walk around with out a weapon right now?" Phillip said eyeing Alexandra with interest. Dillan's blood boiled as he saw Phillip look the way he did at his Alex.

"What the fuck you staring at?" Dillan's face was getting red.

"What the hell is wrong with you chill out!" Dan said intervening. Phillip for once looked confused.

"What're you talkin 'bout?" he asked. He honestly didn't have the slightest clue as to what had set Dillan off.

"Nothin..." Dillan sat down, feeling slightly foolish for making a scene.

"Anyway, we gotta go to sleep. Yeah I know it's only seven." Phillip shot a glance at Dillan who he had expected to make some sort of fuss. "But we're gunna need it for tomorrow. Also, what else is there to do..."

The party of eight, meaning Phillip had decided to use the room were Rick had found the weapons to sleep in. Everyone would sleep in the same room, it all made sense even though many of them didn't want to admit it. It was safest on the second floor, the zombies would only be able to attack from one direction if they managed to break into the house, and if they needed to escape there was a window they could leap to safety from. There was guard duty too, partners selected by Phillip would take three hour shifts until 7 am the next day. Rick and Jennifer would have first watch.

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**Ok, so I've caught up with what I've written again, the next chapter is going to take some time for me to write out, I also want go back and edit my previous chapters and get the quality up. I feel that my last chapter could have been better, I'll probably end up editing this one again as well. Please leave me some reviews, and thanks to those who have left me some already. I don't want to give a time table for the net update, because I'll probably end up missing the deadline but whatever. I hope to get Chapter 7 out within a week. Also when I spell checked just now, I could of swore I accidently put the word "coffee" in somewhere where it didn't belong, I reread, but as many of you know it's harder to catch mistakes in your own writing. Yeah that was random but whatever peace out!**


	7. Chapter 7: Guard Duty

**Reign Of The Rancid**

**------------------------------**

Chapter 7: Guard Duty

Rick slumped down next to Jennifer outside of the bedroom door. He quickly flicked his weapon to safe, and turned speaking lazily to Jennifer.

"Yours on safe?" The day had taken its toll on the teenaged boy. Rick felt extremely tired, it had happened so fast he thought he was just going to drop from sheer exhaustion.

"Yeah, it's this thing right?" Jennifer motioned to a switch on the shotgun.

"Uh huh." Rick sat for a few moments in silence, and then exhaled loudly flapping his lips.

"Can you believe all this?" he said, voice quavering. Before Rick had finished his sentence he had heard Jennifer's faint sobs. It didn't surprise him. He could only imagine what it must have been like to walk into your own home to find your family massacred by those cannibals. Then before he realized what was happening he found himself crying. He felt sorry for himself, he was only seventeen after all, this was all to much. He was full on crying before he remembered where he was and who he was with. Suddenly Rick was embarrassed.

"Man...this sucks." he cracked a half-hearted smile attempting to break the melancholy atmosphere. Jennifer managed a short lived hiccupy laugh.

"What are am I going to after when we get out of here?" she said softly. Tears began to well up again in her eyes. Rick put his hand around her trying his best to comfort his friend. He thought it odd that at a time like this, after everything that had happened today he was wondering how he smelled. Did he stink?

"Don't worry." he said gently. "We'll figure something out." Rick felt guilty again, his family was safe in Pennsylvania. Jennifer continued on her voice cracking as she spoke.

"Rick, I'll be all alone." she whimpered.

"You'll still have me, Dan and Cody." he gave her a little shake. "Listen why don't you go to sleep, I got this." Rick stood up.

"Where are you going?" Jennifer asked.

"I just gotta get a snack, I'm starving." Rick silently went into the bedroom, taking care not to wake any of his sleeping peers. Unzipping a duffle bag, he set about rummaging through it's contents until he found a bag of Andy Capp's Hot Fries.

"K, go to sleep." Rick slumped down next to her. Jennifer planted her head on Rick's shoulder, it felt nice. She felt safe, and comfortable. Within minutes Jennifer was asleep. Rick's stomach did a somersault, he knew what it meant and it scared him. Jennifer was his friend, and now he had these feelings. The timing couldn't of been worse. He made himself a promise that if they made it out of here and he still had those feelings for her he'd act on them. For now though he needed to focus on getting his friends and himself to safety. He felt worse when it dawned on him he still hand two and a half hours left until he could sleep. He opened the Hot Fries. Instead of eating the snack he pinched a fry between his fingers which turned orange and greasy. Rick then gritting his teeth rubbed his eyes with his greasy digits. It stung like hell but it would keep him awake.

Two and a half hours went by slowly, so slowly Rick had checked Dillan's watch over and over convinced he was pulling double shift. When the time came to finally tuck in he guided a sleep Jennifer back into the room and kicked Dan awake, and threw the watch at Cody's head.

"I hope those things break in or something because I can't sit here for three hours with nothing to do." Dan said groggily five minutes into their shift. Cody was slightly repulsed, he couldn't tell if Dan was serious or if it was just a cranky joke.

"Whaddya think about tomorrow?" Cody said trying to spark a conversation.

"I don't want to go back to that school man." Dan said shaking his head. "And I know you Rick and Jenn don't want ta either. I don't think Tom and the rest know how bad it really is, shit the place is probably crawlin with'em." Dan shivered, he didn't want to talk about it now.

"I feel bad for Mr. Burges, ya know that Tom guy." Cody mumbled. Dan nodded.

"Yeah but I don't want any of us to get killed trying to save his daughter who's probably dead." he felt a little guilt when he said "probably dead."

"Did you ever hear of her?" Dan asked Cody.

"Nah. What do you make of the other three?" Cody said referring to Dillan Rick and Alexandra. Dan sat for a moment musing.

"Phillips alright, I mean we wouldn't of came this far without him, and he sure as hell can shoot." Cody proceeded to cut in.

"Yeah but it's kinda scary, he takes it all so lightly like he's seen it all before."

"Yeah, maybe he's just cool under pressure?" Cody gave Dan a doubtful look at this insight.

"Well" Dan continued. "That Dillan guy is a pain in the ass. I mean when the shit was goin down he was alright but when there's not any of those things attacking us he never shuts up. Always bitching." Cody gave a half hearted chuckle.

"He never knows what's going on either." Cody tried to impersonate Dillan's voice as best as possible, adding a slow stupid tone to it.

"Duh, what's goin on? Uh where are we going?" The two had a brief spite of laughter, which was cut short by a horrible moaning and soft pounding from below.

"Think it'll get in?" Cody hissed visually terrified.

"I don't know let's check." Dan crept to the edge of the stairs and begun the decent his legs felt like Jell-O. It was much different to encounter these things at night, he was frightened to no end of them, though he wouldn't show it.

They made it to the last stair, reluctant to go any further.

"It aint gunna get in let's just go back." Dan quickly hissed trying to back track up the staircase.

"Ok, let's go back." Cody had a hard time hiding his fear, although he didn't care if Dan knew. Dan was scared too, he knew it but he also knew Dan wouldn't let anyone acuse him of it. The pair slumped against the door again and started up their conversation again to the ambience of the moans and pounding.

"So what do you think about Alexandra?" Cody said, he knew Dan's answer before the words even left his lips.

"She's hot." Dan smiled wolfishly. "I guess that's the only thing about Dillan I admire about Dillan. He's got a hot girlfriend." Cody rolled his eyes.

"Since when do you even care about having a girlfriend? I thought you only liked to "hit it and quit it." Cody said glaring slightly and Dan.

"Hey fuck off it's not like that!" Dan remembered now why he wasn't fond of Cody.

"Anyway she's the only one I trust." Cody said trying to brush off their most recent confrontation.

"What d'ya mean?"

"Well today when you guys where in Jennifer's house." he paused trying to recollect the events of the day.

"Yeah?" Dan said trying to get Cody to continue.

"Well when you guys were in there he and Tom just wanted to take off and leave you guys." Dan was shocked, at least partially.

"Are you serious!" he thought at least Tom was reliable. Cody nodded.

"Yeah, anyway Alex wouldn't let them, and me of course." The way Cody had added the last bit annoyed Dan, it sounded like Cody was making an excuse for something.

"What about Phillip why don't you trust him?" Dan asked sternly.

"Just look at him"

Phillip snapped upright and alert, and snatched at the hand tugging at his shoulder.

"Ow!" It whined, it was the pudgy kid named Cody. "Your turn." He said massaging his wrist. Phillip walked to the door, taking extra care to step harshly on Dillan's hand.

"Oops." he sniggered.

Alexandra was already outside the room. She was sitting on onside of the door. When she spotted Phillip she moved over making room for him. He ignored the gesture and chose to lean against the railing instead.

"My parents are probably worried sick about me. Remember, Dill and I were supposed to meet them tonight. With the way all of this is playing out on the news I don't think we'll get out of here for a long time." she sighed. Phillip caressed the side of his weapon.

"Don't believe everything you see..." he started to speak but was drowned out by Alexandra's voice. She sounded as if she was going to pieces.

"What's going on?" she started to sob quietly. "How can all of this be real?" she started to sob. Pihillip shifted uneasily, he hated crying, grown tired of it. It made him feel awkward.

"Sssh, I hear something!" he hissed. He hadn't really heard anything, but it was a good excuse to get away and check on how everything was holding up around the house.

He wandered around the ground floor aimlessly checking the boards and investigating a noise he had heard in the bedroom to the right of the staircase. It was nothing, it would hold up fine. As he made his way back upstairs, he could see Alexandra with her hands on her hips looking rather flustered.

"What was it?" she inquired haughtily. Phillip attempted to maneuver around him, Alexandra refused to budge.

"Well?" she persisted.

"Nuthin' don't worry about it." She didn't seemed satisfied by this answer.

"Why are you so uncomfortable around anyone who displays any emotion of any kind?"

"What? Could you move please?" Phillip threw up his arms in frustration.

"Answer the question." she said sternly.

"Cuz it annoys the shit outta me, your doing a good job of it too!" Alexandra was taken aback and appeared to be slightly hurt. She then snapped back at Phillip, almost as if he was a child.

"The rest of us here are scared fucking terrified by this whole...zombie thing. We're worried about our families, and about ourselves, I'm sorry we're all not emotionless rocks like you!" she stamped towards the door and slumped down against it. She was surprised at her own verbal assault, also surprised she hadn't waken any of the others, she had almost begun to yell.

"We can't all be cold hearted arrogant pricks like you." she spat out of frustration.

"It ain't like that." Phillip said, his voice still calm and unwavering. It made Alex's blood boil, even after all she said he didn't seem offended one bit, couldn't even show anger, which she knew he was capable of.

"Then what is it like." she asked, trying t stay civil.

"It doesn't matter."

"Come on, tell me then." she tried sounding sincere. Maybe a different approach would work.

"What where you violated as a child?" Phillip looked up confused at Alexandra's friendly jibe.

"Seriously, just tell me." she persevered.

"WHY DO YOU CARE?" Phillip roared. Alexandra jolted in fright. The pounding of the undead outside grew louder and a sleepy Dan could be heard.

"Whast, a goin on out durr?" he muttered.

"Nuthin go to sleep." Phillip called back.

After five minutes of silence Alexandra attempted again and her query."Why do you keep avoiding it?" she said, casually. Phillip caught himself laughing, she was a straight shooter just like his old girlfriend.

"What's so funny?" Alexandra asked perplexed.

"You." He caught the expression on her face. "Not in a bad way, you just remind me of some one."

"Who?" It would of been futile ttry and dodge this bullet Phillip thought to himself.

"My old girlfriend." he said looking at Alexandra who was obviously shocked to get a bit of personal information out of him.

"_Really? _What happend to her?"she said leaning foward eagerly awaiting a response.

"We broke up a long time ago."

"Well no wonder your so unpleasent." Alexandra said with a devious smirk. Phillip genuinley laughed. Alexandra liked the sound of it, it was like Dill's only deeper and not as obnoxious.

"Damn, you got me." he chuckled. He could feel Alexandra hanging on to his every word, scrutinizing him like he was being studied. He didn't like where the conversation was headed.

"What do ya think about Tom and the kids? You trust'em?"

Alexandra looked at him, she sounded offended when she answered. "Of course!" Phillip wanted to snort in digust at her stupidity, but thought better of it. He also thought that maybe she just saw the best in everyone.

"Well, Tom can sure as hell drive." Phillip said trying to keep the mood from going into a unpleasent relaspe.

"What about you?" Alexandra said smiling. She like many of the others had seen Phillip as thier leader, he seemed to be bred for situation they where all stuck in. She pictured Phillip with one hand on the wheel and the other holding the .22 rifle popping shots off as he dodged traffic coming head on.

"Actually, I can't drive to well." Phillip chuckled dryly.

Alexandra smiled again. "And I took you to be one of those action hero types." She paused putting on a more solemn face. "So you really can't drive?" She thought he was joking at first, but he appeared to be sincere.

"Not very well, I haven't ever really drove to much." Phillip said almost contemptuously.

"How old are you?" Alexandra asked.

"Twentey seven."

"Why..." Alexandra started.

"My job didn't require me to drive to much."

"What about school?"

"I didn't go to college." Phillip was becoming slightly annoyed. "I was in the Army. Now I got a headache and I'm tired as hell." It was the nicest could tell Alexandra to shut up with out angering her. After a few moments Alexandra spoke.

"Well it makes sense."

"What makes sense?"

"You being in the Army."

"Yeah, yeah I guess it does."

"So how long have you and Alex been dating?" Tom said, trying to find a way to keep his mind off of Sara. Dillan yawned, his hair was a mess, not that he cared at this point.

"A little over six months now. Man she's great." Dillan said dreamily before continuing. "So you got a wife?"

Tom grunted, not welcoming the question.

"Did. We split up awhile back." Dillan failed to spot the signs etched on Tom's face and continued with the inquery.

"Sara's you're only child I take it?" The second the words had left his mouth he knew he'd gone into emotionaly troubling territory. He knew beofre Tom started crying. Dillan stared dumbfoundly at Tom. He was such a big man, he had a kind face but his sheer size gave Dillan the impression that this man wasn't the type to cry openly. He would of thought he did it like Dillan, going to the bathroom and turning on the water, or using his pillow to muffle the sounds when they where sleeping in the other room.

"Don't worry, we're going to get her in just a few hours." Tom continued sobbing, his face buried in his hands.

"It's...it's just," He tried to say looking up.

"I know." Dillan said trying his best to deal with the situation at hand. Tom had the urge to bunch the blonde haired boy. What did he know? That kid had no idea what it was like to have a child, let alone the pain he felt knowing she could be trapped in a building full of cannibals. Tom breathed deeply, alas the kid was only trying to help.

"Sorry." He said getting up. "It's just that I'm worried about her ya know?" Then the idea struck him; why should he wait? He had his keys to the SUV, he had a weapon and he could get a bag of supplies from the only room. The only thing that could cause him a bit of trouble was Dillan. A simple rap to the back of the kid's head with the butt of his shotgun would do it.

"Would you, er uh excuse me. I gotta get somethnig." Tom said twiddleing his fingers.

"Huh? Yeah sure." Dillan said only half paying attention. Tom stepped into the room quietly and carefully. He even took special care to breath through his shirt, there was so much dust in the air... It had been and hour since he and Dillan started their watch and Phillip and Alexandra appeared to have fallen asleep with the children. Tom gingerly picked up a black garbage bag filled with the bags of chips, pretzels and other assorted snacks. The sound of crinkling bags made him cringe and inhale sharply. Thankfully not a soul stirred. He had ammunition on him, and water would be easy to get, all he had to do was dispose of Dillan. He laid his hand on the door knob ready to really put his plan into action,

"What are you doing?"

Tom froze. He slowly began to turn around. Phillip was sitting up staring darkly at the would be thief. Tom mentally was unleashing a tirade of curses upon himself. Phillip had never actually gone to sleep, he should of waited longer, or just hit the guy upside the head just to be safe.

"I just wanted to go through the supplies, take a count of how much we got." Tom knew Phillip saw right through this, he expected the dark haired cold eyed man to attack him, or at the very lest rouse the others and show them what Tom's true agenda was.

"We did that last night." Phillip could notice Tom refused to meet his eyes when he spoke. They both knew the situation. He could see it etched on Tom's face, he knew he was busted yet he stood still like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Tom slowly placed the bag on the floor, he could feel Phillip's piercing gaze.

"So, uh get some sleep."

"Lemmie see the keys Tom." Another long silence.

Tom knew if he refused Phillip would let loose exposing him. There was a good chance he'd be over powered and left behind. Maybe even killed. Phillip had him by the ears and they both knew it.

"Here." Tom spat holding back his anger. Phillip caught the keys and layed back down. Phillip slackend the grip on a ballpoint pen he had found, it was the closest thing he could of used as a weapon in a pinch.

"Wake us in two hours."

Tom shut the door, restraining himself from ripping it off the hinges. Suprisingly only Dan was awakened.

"Wazza goin..."

"Shut it." Phillip's voice could be heard.

"Freaggin, freaggin..." Tom stammered as he reappeared in the hall. "Freaggin jerk!" Dillan held back a laugh best he could.

"Jerk? I'm sorry bro but jerk? At least use something that describes the man more accurately. Try asshole, prick or bastard." Dillan said with a smile. Tom was stone faced, annoyed that Phillip had gotten the better of him.

"I hate that Phillip guy," Tom grumbled. "can you believe he thought I was trying to steal a bag of our supplies."

"Yeah." Dillan nodded his head empathetically. Tom was glad for the connection, if Phillip tried to reveal him to the rest of the crowd, he was sure he could rely on Dillan for support, even if it was more because of Dillan's hate for Phillip than anything else.

The pair decided to rebel for the last hour of their watch and go to the ground floor and turn on the television. They all had agreed on a blackout rule the night before, to avoid attracting anymore unwelcome persons, alive or undead. The news was generally good. The military was doing a superb job with the evacuation sites, plenty of food and other supplies were being airlifted via helicopter. It was surprising to see as much machinery as they did. There where many helicopters, trucks and even tanks along the blockade border. Tom was under the impression that most of the military equipment was in the Middle East. There was a bit of news that would potentially have negative effects on the small group of survivors. It appeared that the border was locked down, al the gaps had been filled. This included the great lakes where Coast Guard gunboats where stationed and would fire on any vessel that failed to comply with their orders.

The most interesting news by far was taking place in New York City. Evidently the situation had gotten so far out of hand that the whole of Long Island had been sealed off from the rest of New York state. Tanks had been called in, these where the only armored vehicles that weren't stationed on the State wide blockade. They were needed according to the White House official Henry Patterson to "stem infection of this magnitude from reaching the outside." Tom and Dillan watched awestruck as the camera switched to a live shot from New York City itself. The individual operating the camera was on the roof of a sky scraper. Shrieks and moans where over powering, even from the top of the building, which was taller than your average sky scraper. An Apache attack helicopter could be seen in the distance, unleashing hell with it's 30mm chain gun and Hydra 70 rockets onto unknown targets below.

"You think we'll get some choppers and some tanks rollin in to save us?" Dillan asked Tom, his eyes still glued to the screen.

"No way. The government is trying to make people think their in control of this. The fact that they sent a single helicopter must mean that the situations really bad. How bad would it be for the governments public support if we saw buildings being blown up by our own helicopters because of a situation that was their fault to begin with." Dillan had tuned our halfway through Tom's little speech. He managed an "Oh." before focusing back on the television. According to the press the biggest threat of the infection spreading across the country came from people attempting to escape by boat at the docks. Navy and Coastguard boats had been deployed to stop or destroy any vessel seen leaving or entering the deadly waters. A reporter was on the deck of a Navy medium sized cruiser, far away from any of the real action but close enough to give those watching a good idea of what was happening. The burly reporter explained that any of those captured were being taken to Liberty Island where a camp to check and process detainees was setup over night. When the reporter was half way through explaining how the Navy and Coastguard went about collecting survivors in the water there was an explosion of gunfire from aboard the cruiser. The man operating was able to capture a split second of footage of a sailor unloading his .50 caliber machine gun at a small speed boat racing past. The camera was promptly knocked from his hands by an officer and it tumbled into the water.

An hour later Phillip was gathering the gang of survivors in the living room for one of his briefings.

"Fuck I'm tired." Dan moaned.

"Alright." Phillip said with authority. "We made a deal with Tom." At these words he glared at the worried father. "So we are going to this school and going to find his daughter. First of all, if we drive by and I don't like what I see we're gone."

"Who said you're in charge?" Dillan spat sneering.

"Yeah." echoed Rick, Cody managed a murmur of agreement.

"Ok, you got a better plan let's hear it?" Phillip said angrily. Dillan stepped forward.

"That ain't the point. You think that just because..." Phillip cut him off.

"So you don't have one then? No? Then shut it asshole." Phillip gritted his teeth. The utter stupidity of Dillan was frustrating. Then without warning, Dillan charged. His fists raised and poised for a fight.

----------------------------------------------------

**I took a long time to finish this chapter, it was kinda hard for me but don't worry lots of action coming up. I just found out that review alerts and private messages get forwarded directly to my email. The email address I registered with this site I no longer use, but I will still logon to it now and then to check for PM's and stuff so sorry if I haven't replied. I feel this chapter is kinda poop compared to my others because I sort of rushed at the end to get it out. I'll end up going back to fix it up more. Please leave me a review if you'd like.**


	8. Chapter 8: Back To School

**Reign Of The Rancid**

**--**

Chapter 8: Back To School

The fight was over before it began. Dillan came in with a left hook. Alexandra gave a shriek of surprise as Phillip caught Dillan's arm and threw his adversary into a small wooden table. Dillan was unable to recover as Phillip climbed on top throttling Dillan's neck with one hand and pressing a ball point pen into the man's neck with the other.

"Fuck with me!" Phillip roared in anger. Alexandra was screaming for both men to stop. Everyone else was taken aback by the speed and ferocity of Phillip's counter attack. Dillan's eyes were wide with terror as the pen pressed deeper into his neck, drawing a trickle of blood.

"Hey!" boomed Tom. "Get off of him!" Phillip turned staring down the long barrel of Tom's shotgun.

"This is messed up man." Cody muttered quietly. Phillip relaxed and calmly stood up brushing his shoulders off. Tom lowered his weapon.

"You're fuckin psycho!" Dillan got up quickly, backing away from Phillip. "You fuckin made me bleed!" he whined. Phillip's face turned red with anger.

"Then why did you swing at me!"

"Cuz you're a prick!"

"What are you twelve?"

Again it was Tom who restored order.

"Shut up! I don't care! We're all ready, we're leaving now to go get my daughter!" A few moments of silence passed. Dan looked up.

"Let's go."

The basement still reeked of the undead who had been dispatched the day earlier. It made Rick nauseas.

"It smells like death down here. I think I might hurl..." As quickly and quietly as they could the eight survivors packed up the SUV and piled into it. Phillip took position sticking out of the sunroof. Dillan was riding shotgun, he leaned out the window ready to dispatch any undead that came through the garage door.

"Here we go." Tom switched the button on the remote. Mechanical whirring filled the garage as the door slowly lifted. There was six of them. Two attempted to crawl under the door. Phillip and Tom made quick work of the pair. The door continued to rise at a nail biting pace. Phillip shot two more before they had time to snarl. Tom planted two shells in the chest of a young man who snarled and fell backwards appearing to have seizures on the pavement. Dillan gritted his teeth and unleashed a load of buckshot dispatching the final zombie.

"Hurry go go!" Dan chided in the back. Tom now had a good feeling for driving on this type of terrain. The vehicle made it's way down the hill twice as fast as before. Only this time there was much more of the undead attempting to get a meal Phillip was trying to keep their left side clear from any attackers coming down the hill. Dillan was busy trying to knock down zombies that were in front of the vehicle.

Babump!

"Damnit kid, will you keep'em clear!" Tom spat as the SUV collided with another zombie. It was an old woman with curly hair, she gave a gurgled growl and bounced off the automobile.

"Sorry I'm tryin!" Dillan replied frantically. There wasn't much the others could do beside pray, and occasionally reload a weapon for one of the two shooters. The tires screeched as the SUV pulled onto the street and accelerated at break neck speed.

Dan looked around excited.

"Holy shit man, that was crazy!" No one seemed to share his enthusiasm. It was quiet for a few more moments. The only sound was of weapons being loaded. Finally Phillip lowered himself into the vehicle.

"Alright let's go over the plan."

Dillan gave a snort.

"Come on we've been over it a hundred times already. Tom, Rick, Jenn, Cody and you go up and search the school. Me, Alex and Dan will stay here in the car. You guys have thirty minutes to look for Sara. Whoever doesn't come back by the end of that time is shit out of luck." Phillip looked at Dillan a smile etched on his rough face.

"Well god damn..."

"What?"

"You actually remembered something." Snickers could be heard from the back of the vehicle. Tom winced as he barely avoided a flaming pick up truck in the middle of the road.

"I want more time to look for Sara!" his eyes started to glisten with tears. Rick tried to explain the situation as best he could.

"If it's even half as bad as it was yesterday we won't even be able to stop. We'll be lucky if we can step outside for even five minutes." Rick was absolutely terrified of going back to the school. He and his friends barely escaped before, he didn't want to try his luck. Rick was also scared he'd run into some of his classmates. He wasn't sure if he could pull the trigger on them, even if they were infected. He almost envied Dan. Almost. The reason Dan was staying behind in the vehicle was to keep tabs on Dillan. Phillip had come to Dan and asked him to make sure Dillan didn't try to take the SUV and leave everybody for dead. There was a chance Dan may have to shoot Dillan. Rick was glad he wasn't in Dan's position.

The drive to the school was eerie. Gone was the chaos of yesterday, instead there was a creepy silence only broken by the distant wailing of sirens and occasional gunfire.

"We're getting close." Tom mumbled. Rick was so nervous he thought his heart was going to explode. Then, there it was. The school. Only instead of the hundreds of infected he had pictured, there was nobody. Hundreds of corpses littered the parking lot. The pavement was red with blood and gore, yet none of the undead were stumbling amongst the wrecked vehicles.

"Something's not right. Where are they?" Jennifer whispered.

"Should I park in here." Tom asked in a horrified voice. Rick shook his head.

"No keep following the road down the hill to that old diner." The only other car in the diner's parking lot was a black sports car. By the look of it and the building it was evident that the driver had lost control and smashed into the side of the diner. Tom pulled the SUV around to the back of the building and hopped out.

"Let's go, come on!" Without waiting for the others he set off towards the school. Rick closed the breech of his shotgun and turned to Dan.

"Make sure you're ready for us when we get back." Rick turned to Jennifer next. She looked odd wielding the twenty gauge shot gun. For some reason it saddened him.

"So it'll be you and me. Cody's gunna go with Phil and Tom." Phillip suddenly ran by the pair of teenagers grabbing Rick by the arm.

"Come on kid let's get this over with!" Cody and Tom slowed down to wait for the rest of the group. The five regrouped and made their way back to the school parking lot, constantly on the alert for signs of the undead. As they approached the parking lot it dawned on Rick how truly awful yesterday had been. All over were corpses, blood and bits of flesh. Intestines were a common sight, almost as common as dismembered corpses.

"I can't look at this I want to go back." Jennifer said hiding her face in her hands.

"This is some fucked up shit..." Phillip mumbled. Cody vomited. Rick tried to console his friend. By now the grop had slowed to a walk.

"You alright?"

"No." Suddenly Tom was jogging excitedly towards the front doors to the school.

"Hey! Hey look!" Tom pointed, in front of the doors stood a man. He had scruffy red hair, with a mustache and beard to go with it. He wore an old brown hooded sweatshirt. In his hand was a barrel of a pump action shotgun covered in grime, the butt of the weapon rested on the ground.

"Excuse me!" Tom waved his hand as he ran up to meet the man. At first the man said nothing, he seemed to be sizing everyone up. After a few moments he spoke.

"Hello." His voice was rough and scratchy. "You folks need a place to stay?" Behind him two more figures came out from the school. One was a boy Rick noticed from school, he had a pistol in one hand. The other was older looking, he also had a pump action shotgun like the man with the beard.

"We're looking for a girl named Sara. She's my daughter. How many other people are with you guys? I have a picture of her if you need one?" Tom fumbled with his wallet. The man with the beard held his hand up.

"Slow down. What can I help you folks with? There's more of us inside. If you need to come in and take a look around you're welcome to do so." Upon finishing his invitation he smiled and looked at Jennifer. Rick didn't like this man.

"Alright let us in." Tom made his way towards the front doors. The man with the beard held his arm out blocking Tom's advance.

"I'm going to need all of those weapons." Tom stopped perplexed.

"Listen we're not going to stay here, I just need to look for my daughter. The bearded man shook his head.

"I'm still going to need your weapons." Phillip didn't like this guy at all.

"Your not getting anything." Phillip motioned for the rest of the group to follow him." Come on we're leaving." The bearded man could be heard behind Phillip as he started to walk away. The man's voice was harsh and angry now.

"I don't think you understand buddy, you're giving us those weapons. And the girl."

Click! Clack! Phillip turned to see three weapons pointing at him.

"Now I want you all to turn around slowly and put those guns on the ground." said the man with the bead smiling.

"Shit." Phillip muttered.

--

Dan relaxed. It was apparent Dillan wasn't going to try and steal the SUV. He and Alexandra were in deep conversation about their favorite movies. He also knew Alexandra would never let Dillan abandon the rest of the group.

It appeared that the diner's owner had haphazardly attempted to board the place up. The outside walls were spattered with blood, bits of flesh were on the ground. There were no bodies though. Dan knew what that meant. He jolted in his seat as the back door of the restaurant opened. A boy walked out that Dan immediately recognized. He had a Glock 17 pistol in his hand, about average height, skinny with dark brown skin and short black hair. He was followed by another boy who Dan also knew. The boy was tall, pale skin with short light hair. He too was skinny and had a large kitchen knife in one hand and was dragging a garbage can with the other. The boy with the pistol noticed the van and trained the weapon on it. Alexandra gave a shriek and put her head between her knees, Dillan swore and curled into a ball in his seat.

"Shoot'em!" Dillan half cried. Dan shook his head vigorously.

"Shut up!" He stepped out of the door. The boy with the gun promptly lowered the pistol. His face scrunched quizzically.

"Dan?"

"What's up Anthony?"

"Holy shit! Rodney, look it's Dan!" The pale boy, who was now known as Rodney stepped out from behind the door.

"Dan? What are you doing here? Are you alone?" Rodney asked.

"No." Dan smiled, he was so happy to see a familiar face. He'd thought that the whole town was dead. "Rick, Jennifer and Cody are with me too. Along with some other people we met." Dan motioned to Alexandra and Dillan who continued to watch the reunion from the SUV. Anthony squinted at the SUV.

"Are they all in there?"

"No, Rick, Jenn, Cody and two others went up to the school. They were trying..." Rodney cut him off.

"What!" Rodney looked surprised and worried. "Tell them to leave now." Dan's pulse started to throb.

"What? Why?" Rodney took a deep breath and spoke.

"Yesterday, when we tried to leave that hell hole we ended up crashing into the side of this place." At this Rodney gave Anthony a look of disdain.

"Dude I'm sorry but there was a zombie on the god damned roof!" he said defensively.

"Whatever." Rodney continued. "Anyway we hid out here for a little while. When things settled down we heard gunfire coming from up by the school. We almost got killed, trying to get up there. We get there and there's a bunch of older looking guys and some students barricading the front foyer up." Rodney paused for a second and continued.

"We thought it would have been a good place to stay at first. But these guys were bad. I mean out of nowhere they started raping the girls, fuckin freshman girls from our school. They even killed a cop for his gun. All we could do was stand there and watch." Anthony cut in.

"That wasn't even the worst of it. Those things, the infected, they're all over the school still. The only place they haven't reached was is front foyer, where the lving have barricaded themselves. So essentially they're surrounded. Also, they're keeping everyone in the auditorium, there are people who've been attacked, infected people who haven't died and turned into one of _them._ They're just sitting in there waitin to die. It's only a matter of time before that place up there is overrun with those things." Anthony looked towards the school.

"Dan you and your friends better come inside. It's not safe out here."

"What about..." Dan's head suddenly turned, the sound of gunfire echoed from up at the school.

--

**I haven't updated in a lonnnnnnng time but, more is to come. I want to get this story finished by the end of the summer and start the sequel. Please leave me some reviews.**


	9. Chapter 9: Nothing

_**Ok I have not updated in a long time. But I'm gunna try to keep churning out as many chapters as possible. I would really like to try and finish this story before the end of the year but I highly doubt it. The more I write the more I realize this is going to be much longer. Anyway as always any feed back will be appreciated. Enjoy. Also I had to transfer almost all of this chapter from Microsoft word to Works so it might be a little wierd as far as formatting goes.**_

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_**Reign Of The Rancid**_

_**Chapter 9: Nothing**_

"What do we do?" Rick hissed at Phillip.

"Hey_, shut the fuck up!"_ The kid with the pistol yelled at Rick. The boy motioned to Rick's shotgun.

"Put it down or I'll blow your face off!" Slowly Rick complied; he gently placed the shotgun on the ground and raised his arms. He tried to negotiate.

"Listen, take the guns just let us all…"

"I said _shut up!_" The boy screamed again. He thrusted his pistol at Rick. The third man pointed his shotgun at Tom.

"Hey big boy, I'd put that weapon down if I were you." He smirked. Tom looked over to Phillip, who shook his head. Even so Tom too slowly relinquished his weapon.

"Please. I just want to find my daughter."

Phillip was now the only one still holding a firearm. The man with the beard aimed the shotgun directly at Phillip's head and took a step forward.

"Listen tough guy, you don't want to get you and your friends killed, so why do you just put, HEY!" The man screamed and jumped back. Phillip had raised his rifle, the barrel directly in line with the bearded man's face. The bearded man started sputtering threats; he was obviously shaken by Phillip's blatant defiance.

"Put that god damn gun down, I'm warning you!" Phillip raised his eyebrows in mock surprise. The bearded man continued.

"Just give us the guns!"

"And the girl!" The other man chimed in.

"This is your last chance!" the bearded man warned. Phillip stared at the bearded man quietly for a few moments.

"Fuck off." There was no response. Phillip's mind was racing; he knew that this Mexican standoff would only last so long. Eventually someone was going to get hurt. Phillip noticed movement to his left; the teenage boy with the pistol had noticed it too and fired a shot. Everything broke down. Cody fell backwards screaming in agony, Phillip crouched and retreated, firing the .22 with one hand. He fired rapidly, the boy with the pistol jerked and twitched as the .22 bullets slammed into his chest discharging puffs of red mist. The two older men ran back into the school to escape the shooting. Tom scooped up his weapon.

"Get the guns!" he bellowed. Rick snatched his over and under and fired off a shot at the school doors. Hopefully suppressing any hostile fire long enough so they could make an escape. He turned to see Jennifer and Phillip helping Cody walk. Cody was still screaming in pain, tears flowing down his pudgy cheeks. Jennifer was crying too, out of fear rather than pain.

"They're coming!" Tom's baritone voice could be heard. Rick wheeled around expecting to see the two gunmen. Instead, across the parking lot about a dozen of the undead could be seen running, shambling and staggering towards they're new found prey moaning in anticipation. Phillip grabbed Rick by his shirt.

"Help him!" he growled. "I'll hold'em off." Rick nodded and grabbed Cody's left arm, using all his strength to keep his friend moving. It was awkward trying to carry his weapon and his friend at the same time. He could feel the shotgun slipping from his grip. Thankfully they were close; after descending the hill the trio was crossing the street directly opposite the diner. Tom had rushed ahead, he was about to make his way towards the SUV when the front door of the diner was thrown open. Tom was so scared and hopped up on adrenaline he fired a shot at the tall pale boy standing in the threshold. The shot went high, hitting just above the door frame. The boy screamed in the surprise and fell backwards, as wood chips fell upon him. Dan appeared in the doorway with another boy Tom also hadn't seen.

"Come on get in here, hurry!" Dan yelled beckoning them with his hand. He noticed Cody was having trouble walking; he grabbed Anthony and ran off to help. As the pair reached their beleaguered friends the sound of Phillip's .22 was now audible.

"I'm gunna go help him, get them inside!" Dan said to Anthony. Just as he turned he heard Anthony.

"Dan!" Dan turned just in time to catch Rick's shotgun. Dan nodded and ran across the street to assist Phillip. Rick was now in a mixture of emotions, scared, excited, worried and happy. It felt so good to see other survivors that he personally knew. Cody's screams brought him back to earth as they hauled their bleeding friend into the diner.

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Click!

"Shit!" Phillip's magazine had run dry. He burned through his two stripper clips. Reloading was no longer an option. He wheeled around planning on making a full sprint to the SUV only to see Dan trudging up the hill.

"What are you doing here?" He hollered.

"I'm gunna help you." Dan panted

"How much ammo you got?" Dan's heart froze. All he had was the two shells loaded in the breach. He spotted a woman, her chest cavity was ripped open her ribcage was visible. She was running right for Phillip. He raised the weapon and fired off a shot. The buckshot caught the woman in the shoulder about five feet away from Phillip. She staggered off her intended course, stumbling as if she was drunk and fell. Dan found himself laughing. It was a strange time to laugh. He then turned to Phillip; fear immediately replaced his momentary jovial feeling."One. One shell." Phillip rolled his eyes at his remark.

"Thanks for the help." He said in his best sarcastic tone of voice.

"Follow me!" Dan screamed as he set off down the hill. An elderly man in a business suit charged at Phillip. Phillip used the butt of the rifle to push the attacker to the ground before taking off after Dan.

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Dillan loaded a fresh shell into the breach of the sawed off shotgun. He took aim through a slit in the fortified window and squeezed off a shot. Although he was inside the diner, he had no confidence in its ability to hold off they're attackers. It seemed that gunfire brought more and more of the dead out from hiding.

"Shit they're coming from everywhere!" The young man yelled ejecting the spent shell. By now everyone, with the exception of Cody was fighting desperately to keep the undead at bay. Tom stood in the door way, unloading with his pump action shotgun at anything that moved. Rodney, Rick and Alexandra were attempting to reinforce any weak spots while simultaneously attacking any undead clawing at windows. They a sharpened broom handle as a spear, as well as kitchen knives. Anthony was running about the restaurant sticking his Glock through holes in the barricades, and firing point blank into the creatures' skulls. Jennifer and Dillan were firing at the cannibals through pre made slits at the front of the restaurant. Cody lay in a pool of his own blood still screaming. Tom pulled back into the diner slamming the door.

"I have to reload!" The father gritted his teeth as he attempted to load the weapon as quickly as possible.

"We can't hold them alone!" Dillan wailed. "I only have two mags left!" A panicked Anthony could be heard from across the room. Jennifer continued to pump shell after shell of twenty gauge out at the rabid beasts. Dan and Phillip were getting close; they were crossing the street across from the diner.

"They're crossing street!" she screeched.

Dan ran as fast as he could, the number of undead had increased rapidly. The stench of rotting flesh, feces and God knows what else was getting to him. He thought he'd pass out in the middle of the street. He fired last shell at a young girl he probably went to school with. Her face exploded, leaving a hole were brain and bone was only visible. There was no time to be repulsed. A gray skinned man who must have been in his thirties attempted to grab Dan. Dan ducked down and spun, barely escaping the cold clammy fingers of death. Phillip was right behind Dan; he smashed the man in the face with the butt of the .22 rifle.

"There's too many! Were fucked!" howled Dan. The entire front of the restaurant was blocked by the undead, most were attacking the diner itself, but a few had turned and spotted the pair. Abruptly the front of the diner exploded with gunfire. Phillip jerked oddly and fell flat on his face.

"Fuuuuuuck!" he roared gripping his right shoulder. "Fuckin shot me!" he growled as he struggled to his feet, only to be tackled by a balding heavy set deadite.

"No!" Dan held his weapon by the barrel like a baseball bat and swung it like a golf club. The butt of the shotgun caught the zombie under the chin as it was about to close it's jaws around Phillips neck. At the same time the front door was thrown open, sending one of the rotten creatures flying. Tom appeared in the doorway.

"Get _in here!_" he bellowed above the melee. Dan helped Phillip to his feet. The pair lowered their heads and charged for the diner door. Dan made it in first, Phillip directly behind him. Tom fired off one last shot and slammed the door.

"How do we lock this?" Tom was a formidable man; he was easily the tallest at 6'4 and he was fairly burly, weighing in at 230 lbs. Phillip was 5'11, 170 lbs and in excellent shape. Together the two men were barely holding the door against the hungry monsters outside. It seemed that the undead had three times as much strength as when they were alive. At least it felt like it Tom thought.

"Here take this!" Rodney came out from the kitchen sporting a large plank of wood.

"There's two more in the back and a metal pole, go get'em!" As it turned out the wood needed to be nailed in place, while the pole would be slipped in between the doors handles. As Rodney, Tom and Anthony started fixing the doors Alexandra and Dillan dealt with the remaining zombies. Walking about sticking their shotgun barrels through openings and firing off a round. Neither seemed to be enjoying themselves, Alexandra was close to tears while Dillan turned a pale shade of green. Rick, Dan and Jennifer knelt by Cody's side. None of the three students knew how they could help their friend.

"What do we do?" squealed Jennifer. Phillip was seen making his way to the kitchen, he turned the stove on.

"Keep him still, is the bullet still in there?" Phillip picked up a shish kabob skewer and held it over the flames until it was red hot. Dan could be heard swearing as Phillips shoved the skewer into his own wound.

"Ahhhh! Shhhhit!" He swore. A small bloodied copper bb fell out. Phillip then went on the take a shotgun shell, spit it open and pour some of the powder into his wound and set it alight. He gritted his teeth and slammed his fist into the wall."Hey we need help!" Rick yelled angrily. Phillip briskly made his way to Cody. He knelt and examined the boy.

"Are you kidding me? I've never seen so much blood from such a pussy wound." The bullet that hit Cody impacted on his left thigh, taking off a sizable piece of flesh but missing any critical arteries. Phillip poured the remainder of the powder into the Cody's wound and ignited it with a grill lighter.

"Gotta keep that shit clean." Phillip said muffled by Cody's screams. It took a few more minutes to fully patch Cody up. Meanwhile, the parking lot outside diner had been cleared of immediate threats.

The survivors with the exception of Cody were meeting in the backroom, sitting on up turned buckets.

"Christ I can't believe they shot Cody." Dan muttered. "You sure he's gonna be alright?" Phillip nodded.

"Yeah but he can't walk for at least a week. Those improvised stitches won't hold up."

"So we're stuck in this shithole for a week!" Dillan moaned lighting up a Marlboro cigarette. Everyone's attention was on Tom, although Phillip was their leader Tom had the keys to the vehicle, and a pump action shotgun on his person. Before he could answer Anthony spoke up."Well, we're leaving tomorrow, Rodney and I. We can fit three more, possibly four. Dan shook his head."Dude what are you doing, stay with us. We'll have a better chance together; the two of you alone out there aren't gunna last five minutes." Rick stood up nodding in agreement."He's right, just wait awhile, let us figure this all out." Dillan interrupted Rick. "Hold on, how about we go. Me and Alex." Alexandra stood up, prying herself from Dillan's grasp.

"No! We're not splitting up Dill, I want to stay with the group!" Dillan held his head down in defeat.

"Whatever." He mumbled. Dan laughed, Phillip snorted, Rick smiled and turned away.

"Even if you did leave, you're not taking our weapons with you?" Phillip said, getting aggressive.

"Don't worry we're not going anywhere." Alexandra said, now glaring at Phillip. Anthony cut in again.

"We're leaving tomorrow, Rodney and I, we've planned this out already"

"Where are you headed anyway?" Tom spoke for the first time since the attack."Durham." Rodney answered. Tom grunted, Dillan threw his arms up, and Dan smiled."We are too, just stay and wait with us and we can drive up there together." He pleaded with his friends. Rodney shook his head.

"No, our brothers are in the middle school, they went on a field trip to the museum there, my dad chaperoned them. We have to get there fast if we have any chance of finding them. I can't get a hold my dad on his cell."

"He's probably dead." Phillip groaned cleaning his rifle. Rodney stood quiet for a moment, swallowed and spoke.

"We know, but we have to try." Anthony nodded at this.

"The rest of my family is dead, I'm sure of it. My brother is the only one who had a chance so you can't stop us. We're leaving tomorrow morning, it would have been today, but we ran into you guys… We have the food ready, all supplies. We're lacking fire power though. But I'm betting we'll find a cop car on the way or something. That's where this came from." He held up the Glock. "Only got the mag in the gun and half of another." In the other room Cody could be heard calling for assistance. Jennifer went to see what the problem was. Phillip shook his head.

"You know he's the last person I would of shot if I was those guys up there. He was the only one without a weapon. I'm surprised they didn't shoot me."

"Yah, I would have shot you." Dillan said. Rick snickered as Alexandra slapped the back of Dillan's head.

"Which one of them shot him?" Rodney asked, while fiddling with a kitchen knife.

"It was a guy from our school." Rick explained. "He was a senior, like you." He motioned to Anthony.

"Did he have shaggy brown hair and a white shirt?" Everyone in the room stood a little straighter.

"Yeah, you know him?" Rodney and Anthony looked at each other.

"Yeah we do, it's Aaron Dountem, that prick. He's the guy that almost got us killed when we tried sneakin out of that place." Anthony said pulling the slide back on the Glock. Dillan stood up stretching and spoke.

"So did you guys get any of them?" he said looking around.

"Yeah." Tom said with disdain. "Phillip shot that kid up pretty good. Not the first time he's killed someone. Someone living that is." Phillip gave Tom a menacing look. He knew Tom was trying to expose the event that had taken place earlier that previous day. The woman he had killed, the one who had held her arms out begging for help. The one who he was so sure was infected. Phillip also knew the others wouldn't take the news well, he decided to steer the confrontation in a different direction.

"What's he talkin about? Who did you kill?" Dillan said scrutinizing Phillip hoping that the man had done something so horrible the rest of the group would hate Phillip as much as he did.

"Fallujah 2004." Phillip began. " I was in the 75th Ranger Regiment. I assume _you_ know what I'm talking about." Phillip said catching Dan's face who was in awe.

"You were with the Rangers when…"

"When we were supposed to catch that fucker Zarquawi. Instead we kicked up a hornet's nest. Three days. There was a company of us. We got split in two, my half was lucky we at least had some survivors. The rest of them were all killed, only a few got medevaced out during the early hours of the operation. Only about twelve of us made it out in the end. Shitty intel fucked us up. If it wasn't for them Green Beret's none of us would of made it out. It was really Rimmler who saved us back when he was a Colonel. He went behind the backs of the top brass and authorized those airstrikes. They didn't want to send any air support because of fuckin politics can you believe that shit?" Phillip paused catching himself before he went overboard.

"W, Wait. You mean General Rimmler. Isn't he in charge of the quarantine of New York?" Phillip nodded. "Yeah, hell I can't think of nobody better than Rimmler. Hell he _knows_ every second costs lives. He's been there."

Suddenly from outside the diner a loud growling could be heard.

"Hey" Cody's voice could be heard from the dining section. Jennifer appeared in the doorway to the kitchen.

"There's a dog out there." she looked at the others figuring out if she should be scared.

"So?" Dillan huffed.

"_So_ what if it attracts more of those things?" Tom snapped. "Personally I don't want to find out."

"I do." Phillip said getting up. "We should learn all we can about them."

"How will that help us?" Dillan said combatively.

"Because. We can stop at our local pet shop pick up a couple 'o cats and whenever those assholes give us trouble just toss out old Garfield for a distraction while we get away." Anthony said sarcastically.

"Dude that's sick" Rick muttered.

"Besides that." Phillip retorted racking the slide on his rifle. "I like animals." He left the room as the rest of the survivors followed a few giving Anthony looks of disgust.

"I was kidding!" he yelled pleadingly. Dan dropped back and spoke to Anthony.

"Anthony, you and Rodney should stay with us. Aside from that guy Phillip and Rick you're the only one who's ever fired a gun before and knows how to use'em well. Besides man, you two by yourselves out there? Come on you know what will happen." Rodney dropped back and spoke to Dan. "We'll be fine, You can hold your own, you should of seen yourself out there today." Dan sighed, there was no changing their minds. Anthony spoke his voice sounding far off.

"It's fucked up you know it's been a day of this. One day and already we've killed people. Yeah I know their dead but it's still killing." He said catching Dan's face before continuing. "We've seen people eaten and all this other shit. It just shows you when the chips are down humans are still the same animals we were thousands of years ago."

"Nah dude that ain't true." Dan said trying to consol his friend. They watched as a zombie stumbled over spotting the golden retriever out front. Anthony continued..

"When we escaped from up there at the school I shot one of those goons point blank in the back of his head. He probably deserved it or would of done something warranting death but _I _killed him. Do you know what it felt like what it still feels like to kill another _living_ human?" The zombie spotted the golden retriever and took off after it. Tom's suspicions were right. They went after animals too. Anthony continued to stare out the window.

"Nothing. I felt nothing." There was a brief silence.

"Now _that's _fucked up."


	10. Chapter 10: Rick and Dan

**Reign of the Rancid**

_**Chapter 10: Rick & Dan**_

_**Friday March 15, 2014 11:36 PM 70 Days Before Outbreak**_

"Yo Ryota, toss me another beer!" Rick slurred drunkenly.

"Yes sah!" An Asian boy said bowing comically drawing laughter from the plethora of drunken teens in the house. Rick snatched the can of Bud Light, cracked it open and drank with vigor.

"Yo Rick my man!" Anthony called out pushing his way through a group of giggling girls. " 'Scuse me…" he muttered gently elbowing his way though.

"Hey Anthony!" Rick hiccupped. They slapped hands, Anthony smiled. "I'd love tah get in on that!" he said motioning to the group of girls. Rick nodded taking a drink.

"Hey where's that dude…Rooney your always with?"

"Rodney." Anthony corrected. "He doesn't care much for these things."

"How? Who doesn't like to party? WOOAH!" He screamed enthusiastically. His scream was met with even more drunken hoots and hollars. "See what I mean?"

"Pretty drunk huh?"

"Hell yeah! How 'bout you?"

"I'm gettin there." Anthony said scanning the room. "Where's Dan at?" Rick sipped on his beer.

"He went upstairs with some chick named Kelly." Rick caught Anthony's eye who grinned knowingly.

"Get that shit Dan!" He raised his beer clashing cans with Rick. He grew serious. "Speaking of getting laid did you see who Hanks was talkin to?" He motioned over towards a large muscled teenage boy. He leaned against the wall with one hand, the other resting on an attractive girl with striking blonde hair and icy blue eyes.

"Your friends with her right? Ain't her name Jennifer?"

"Yeah." Rick mumbled over the top of his beer.

"It ain't really my place but you know how he is with the girls man. Just givin you the heads up." Rick watched as Hanks ran his hand through Jennifer's hair she laughed slapping his chest playfully.

"That asshole…" Rick crunched the beer can and threw it to the floor.

"Hey hey!" Anthony placed a restraining hand across Rick's chest. "This is Hanks's house man, we're drinking his beer come on don't be an idiot. Besides he'll kick your ass." Rick stood still for a few moments before storming off upstairs.

Rick knocked furiously on the bedroom door. Slowly the door opened revealing a slightly inebriated Dan zippering up his pants. Behind him was a girl kneeling beside a king sized bed.

"What the fuck Rick?" He said sounding somewhat relieved. "I thought you were Hanks you know he'd flip if he knew I was in…"

"He's fuckin with Jenn!" Rick said angrily.

"What, Hanks?"

"Yeah."

"Did you try talking to Jenn about it? Dan huffed.

"After she sucked his dick last week, I told her all about that prick and she told me to fuck off. Hasn't talked to me since. _You _know he's just gunna…"

"I know what he does…" Dan sighed. "Hell I basically do the same thing…"

"Nah dude." Rick shook his head stumbling a bit. "With Hanks he plays them so hard. You know Jenn told me "he's different" fuck that you know he'll fuck 'er and leave her cryin' when he's done and move on to some other girl. With you girls come to you for a good fuck cuz they know you can give it." Rick smiled a little. Dan clasped his hand over his face.

" That's one of he most uncomfortable things you've ever said to me."

"I'm going back downstairs." The brunette girl brushed by the pair briskly.

"Whatever." Dan said seemingly not caring.

"Shit man…" Rick said starting to apologize.

"Fuck it man don't worry bout her." Dan said waving his arm.

"I'm goin to ass his kick." Rick slurred heading for the stairs.

"Your to fucked up" Dan said chasing his friend. "He'll crush you! Besides I'm sorta friends with him in a way!"

"Your friends with everyone!" Rick spat.

"What can I say I'm a likeable guy." Rick stopped half way down the flight of stairs and turned staring Dan in the face.

"I can't believe I have to ask. DO you have my back on this Dan?" Dan was taken aback, and slightly hurt.

"Of course, I'm just saying man think about it for a second. Your in _his _house surrounded by _his_ boys for the most part."

"Fuck thinking, we'll fuck'em all up you, me, Anthony, Ryota, Jim and some other dudes are down there. They got us."

"No they don't they don't know what the hell your doing, your acting like an idiot!"

"Fuck it." Dan sighed again and followed certain he knew he was going to regret being a part of whatever happened next.

"HEY Hanks you faggot!" Rick yelled tripping off the bottom step. No one paid attention they thought it to be playful drunken banter. Rick straightened up and yelled again.

"Hey, faggot!" He threw an empty can that landed at Hanks's feet. The room became suddenly quiet. The only noise that could be heard was the loud rap music blaring and some unfortunate person vomiting outside the house.

"Hey, hey what up buddy it's Rick right?" Ronald Hanks contorted his face. He was still under the impression that this was drunken banter. Either that or he was just being a dick. Rick bet on the latter.

"I know what your doin you asshole." he said staggering up to Hanks. Hanks was big, he had a tree trunk of a chest and massive arms. Rick looked to Jennifer. "Can't you see what this prick is doing!"

"Stay out of my business!" she shrieked, Jennifer had had a couple drinks as well.

"You better watch yourself!" Hanks said aggressively. "Fernandez, get your friend away from me or out of my house real quick before something happens to him!"

"Alright, alright we'll leave just leave Jenn alone." Hanks looked surprised as well as Jennifer. She made an attempt to speak.

"Dan…"

"Jenn I know this guy ok." He turned back to Hanks. "Just stay away man." Hanks was more surprised than angry now. He wouldn't never have suspected Dan to say something like that. Then again he really didn't know him.

"Are you serious Fernandez?" Hanks was unable to speak another word because Rick's fist had collided with his jaw. Hanks staggered back recovered almost instantly and lunged at Rick knocking him to the floor. He jumped atop Rick, straddling him throwing punches at the boy's face.

"Let'em sort it out!" Yelled one of Hanks's friends trying to make a circle and keep out anyone from jumping in.

"Fuck that." Dan yelled. He knew Rick would be going to the hospital if he didn't do anything. He ran forward and delivered a powerful kick into the side of Hanks's head. There were a few screams, a chorus of "oohs" and the shrieking of Jennifer trying to end the fight. One of Hanks's friends swore and threw a punch as Dan helped Rick to his feet. Anthony stumbled through feigning drunkenness, taking the punch. As he recoiled from the blow he hissed at Dan.

"Get him out of here!" He turned back to his attacker. "What the fuck!"

"Shit! Shit! You got in the way!"

"Fuck you!"

Thanks to Anthony's ploy along with a few others who offered a hand the pair was able to make it out of the house before anyone was able to apprehend them.

"What the hell…" Rick mumbled leaning against Dan. "I could of taken him."

"Your bleeding all over me, he was punching your face in your lucky I stepped in and we're both lucky there were some people there who helped us out or we'd both be getting stomped out." There was a moments silence. "How's your nose man?"

"It's fine, it's not broke. Thanks though for savin my ass. He smiled blood covered his face."

"Anytime man."


End file.
